Black Friday Looked Better Than Expected
I ordinarily wouldn’t post about this sort of thing unless I had something to add, and I do. We had some relatives over this weekend, and we needed to go to the mall to get something. We really feared the worst. Not only was traffic almost normal for a Saturday, but parking wasn’t too bad, and the mall itself wasn’t very crowded.
At the time, I had mixed feelings about this. Of course it was nice to not have to use my boomstick to get some shopping done, but our economy seriously needs a bit of good news. Regardless of what you think of the incoming regime in the US federal government, they are inheriting quite the mess.
Here’s a sampling of related news (sob) stories. Some of them show a picture that’s not that bad, but not the big sign of consumer spending some were hoping for. No arguing it was at least a little better than expected.
- Boston.com: Black Friday takes a hit from the economy: This one is not all bad news, thankfully.
- MarketWatch: PriceGrabber.com® Releases 2008 Black Friday Online Shopping Statistics: They’re reporting an 11% increase over last year, which is great, along with some polling before Friday.
- Associated Press: Early data shows strong Black Friday shopping: Sales were up, but only because of incredible deals which will be hard to sustain going forward.
- CNN Money: MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Turn Mostly Higher On Black Friday: However, “Among key electronic retailers, shares of Best Buy (BBY) were off 1%, while those of Circuit City (CCTYQ), which has filed for bankruptcy, were down 2.3%.”
