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 U.S. shoppers spent $9.74 billion on Black Friday, the day after
Thanksgiving. That's a drop of 13.2 percent compared with last year,
according to data released on Saturday by research firm ShopperTrak.
The decline appears to show that more Americans shopped on the
holiday itself: Combined spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday,
which had been considered the official start to the holiday buying
season until this year, rose 2.3 percent to $12.3 billion.
The data reflects that Thanksgiving, which along with Christmas was
one of two days a year that most stores were closed, is becoming an
important day for major retailers.
Black Friday is a time when big retailers open early and offer deep
discounts, but a few started opening and offering those discounts on
Thanksgiving a couple years ago. And this year, at least a dozen did
so, with a few opening earlier in the holiday than they did last
year.
The National Retail Federation, a retail trade group, predicted that
33 million, or almost a quarter, of the 140 million people who
planned to shop during the four-day holiday weekend that ends on
Sunday, would do so on Thanksgiving. Analysts had questioned whether
the holiday openings would steal sales away from Black Friday or
result in people spending more overall.
"Retailers were pretty successful in drawing the consumers into the
stores on Thursday," said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin, whose
company counts how many shoppers go into about 40,000 stores in U.S.
But "Thursday's sales came at the expense of Black Friday's
numbers."
The decline in sales on Black Friday was the second one in a row.
Last year, sales on that day dropped 1.8 percent to $11.2 billion,
though it still was the biggest shopping day last year, according to
ShopperTrak.
Despite the big drop this year, Shoppertrak's Martin said he thinks
Black Friday will remain the biggest shopping day of the year for
the 10th consecutive year. But if retailers continue to promote
Thanksgiving as the start of the holiday buying season, he thinks
the holiday will eventually surpass Black Friday in sales.
"We're just taking Black Friday sales and spreading them across a
larger number of days," Martin said.
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There will be a clearer picture of sales for the first holiday
shopping weekend on Sunday when The National Retail Federation
releases data.
Overall, the retail trade group expects sales to be up 3.9 percent
to $602 billion for the season, which encompasses the last two
months of the year. That's higher than last year's 3.5 percent
growth, but below the 6 percent pace seen before the recession.
Some retailers said the holiday shopping season is off to a good
start. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said it sold 2
million TVs and 1.4 million tablets on the Thanksgiving, while
Macy's said 15,000 people showed up to the 8 p.m. opening of its
flagship New York City store on the holiday.
Edwin Molina, 30, a New Yorker who works in construction, waited
with his wife in line for an hour at a Best Buy that opened at 6
p.m. on Thanksgiving. He said he likes the holiday openings. "It was
better, less hectic," he said.
But not everyone liked the earlier start to the shopping season.
Workers' rights groups and some shoppers led small protests to decry
the way some store employees had to miss holiday meals at home.
And as his wife shopped in a mall near Atlanta on Black Friday,
Curtis Akins, 51, sat on a bench, lamenting the holiday openings.
"It's taking away from the traditional Thanksgiving," Akins said.
[Associated
Press; STEVE ROTHWELL]
AP reporters Jeff Martin
and Mae Anderson contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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