NEW YORK — Thanksgiving is the day we give thanks for what we have. For many, it is also a day to rush out and get some more.
Even before the turkey was on the table, shoppers across America lined up and rolled into stores the night before Black Friday.
“Unemployment has dropped, so people are really thinking that folks are going to head to the stores and head online this season,” said Charisse Jones, a business reporter for USA Today. “They’re thinking sales will be up about 6 percent and $1.4 trillion will be spent by consumers.”
Online juggernaut Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday season sales growth.
With consumer confidence up, sales on Black Friday are expected to be up about six percent.
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“When we go online and deal with a retailer there, they know every detail about our past order history, they know the things that we like, they know the things we don’t like,” said Lee Holman, the lead retail analyst with the IHL Group. “The reality is brick-and-mortar retail is still the dominant part of retail.”
But retailers are feeling the online pressure. Holman said some big-box stores are changing their approach, opening smaller venues and catering to shoppers in urban areas.
“There are retailers planning smaller stores that are maybe a little bit more intimate. So that the communication between the store associate and the customer can be enhanced,” Holman said.
Target is planning to open 130 smaller format stores by the end of 2019, like the one they have in heart of Manhattan’s shopping district.
The vast majority of shoppers may miss out on those door buster dealers, but retailers know that consumers won’t leave empty-handed. That means more dollars spent to boost the holiday bottom line.
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