“Crowds? I see nothing. I’m surprised,” retail worker Jeremy Pritchett told FOX 2. “Normally, it’s wrapped all the way around the building. Today: no one.”
That’s the typical ground report from areas all over the country. No one, literally almost no one, is doing any holiday shopping and the traditional Black Friday rush to get deals and discounts just didn’t happen. Financial media are scratching their puzzlers, perplexed with furrowed brows.
Interestingly, almost every financial media outlet is using the same Retail Federation talking point about anticipating an 8% increase in holiday sales this year. Apparently, pretenses must be maintained. Meanwhile, news crews and camera crews are having a desperate time finding any holiday shopping to use as background footage for the claims that sales are strong.
“Look, over there. There’s a person buying something. Oh, wait, no, that’s just an employee dusting the empty cash register.” At a certain point, one would have to believe reality would run head-first into the mass delusional pretending. Maybe this holiday season will be it, maybe not.
Reuters – […] About 166 million people were planning to shop from Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday through this coming “Cyber Monday,” according to the National Retail Federation, almost 8 million more than last year. But with sporadic rain in some parts of the country, stores were less busy than usual on Black Friday.
“Usually at this time of the year you struggle to find parking. This year, I haven’t had an issue getting a parking spot,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser of the NPD Group Inc.
“It’s a lot of social shopping, everybody is only looking to get what they need. There is no sense of urgency,” Cohen added, based on his store checks in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
At the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, there were no lines outside stores. A Toys ‘R’ Us employee was handing out flyers with a list of the Black Friday “door buster” promotions. (read more)
It’s almost Kafkaesque to see how the media are continuing to maintain economic pretenses, yet the reality of a completely collapsed consumer economy is physically staring them in the face.
(Bloomberg) – Activity Light at One San Francisco Mall (4:40 p.m.) – At the Stonestown mall in San Francisco, shoppers were few and far between. The Target and Zara stores were mostly empty, and there was no line for the mall’s Santa Claus. Uniqlo and Apple were the busiest locations, but they still weren’t crowded.
[…] Crowds were thin in the late morning at the Stamford Town Center mall. Kay Jeweler, empty. Safavieh, empty. Only a couple of people waited at the checkout line at Forever 21 and just a few were in line for a purchase at Barnes & Noble.
[…] At a Target store on Chicago’s North Side, the parking lot was barely half full at about 9 a.m. local time. Shoppers were greeted with $3 ornaments and discounted Christmas trees when entering, and the store seemed calm and relatively quiet.
[…] The Macy’s in Stamford, Connecticut, was neat and orderly — maybe a little too neat and orderly on a day associated with shopping chaos. The furniture section was nearly deserted, though there were more shoppers looking at shoes. (read more)
https://twitter.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1596330507390046208
.
Instead of blaming “sporadic rain” as the reason for reduced traffic, Reuters would have been more believable had they said that shoppers are a bit more leery after the recent Walmart shootings in VA and NC.
Ha ha. Getting harder and harder to cite anything that actually fits their insane narrative.
As a business owner I applaud the fake stream media. You can’t have a depression if no one is there to document it!
https://www.danielgreenfield.org/2022/11/how-obamas-big-economic-lie-caused-our.html
I suspect the unfettered daytime mass looting events at upscale stores in ‘Progressive’ urban zones across our country which we have been seeing almost EVERY SINGLE DAY for more than a year now may have dampened the desire to get up early and pay for stuff with money might have put a damper on things.
Ya think?
That, or they are tapped out after buying the goodies for their Thanksgiving dinner! 😉
I was in Nashville for BF and it was a ton busier than 2020/2021. Similar to 2019 before Covid panic.
Nashville has very little “Youth” crime, so it’s a possible reason.
I was just talking about this yesterday. One of the reasons is because the retailers including the Shopping Networks have had Black Friday Sales for well over a month now. People have been buying the sales for a while now. No need to come out on Black Friday anymore.
No one in my family went shopping on “Black Friday” except to pick up a couple of forgotten grocery items for dinner. My sister, niece and nephew went to Wal-Mart to pick up items for dinner; they had forgotten it was black friday. They reported only the toy section had a lot of shoppers in it.
Today was “Small Business Saturday” in our little town and I made it a point to stop in at a couple of locally owned, independent shops and make a few purchases but there were probably only 3-4 shoppers in any of the stores.
I am very torn because this USED to be a pretty tight knit town but COVID and the BLM riots of 2020 really caused a schism in the community. I made a mental note back then of the stores that loudly proclaimed their political viewpoints and spurned anyone who didn’t share their ideology. I specifically did NOT (and will NOT) patronize them, now or ever! Go woke – go broke!
I have a $25 gift certificate to the quilt supply shop in town. I may use it soon or I may never use it since they were awful about masks, using hand sanitizer, socially distancing, etc., well into 2021.
The shops/restaurants in our town were very much a mixed bag. Some were downright RUDE about it while some were more neutral in their approach.
Our favorite little pizza place, which has been in business for over 40 years, put a note on their door when the county imposed a Vax mandate that said “Thank you for your friendship and loyalty! We don’t like this any better than you do but we are trying to keep our business going so we will have to ask for proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
We continued to order take out and happily returned once the stupid mandate was finally lifted! It’s all in how people/places handled it, IMHO. If they were jerks to me and openly stated they did not want or need my business then I will honor their wishes and never darken their doorstep again!
👍👍
A local Sushi place was stellar throughout the B.S.
We order P/U almost once a week, and recommend the establishment to any Sushi lover.
Well they already have the $25 so you may as well take $25 of goods off the shelf
I know just what you’re talking about.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a bookstore near me, owned by Commies, that still requires muzzle masks!
They are totally insane, there’s no talking to them!
There are some local small businesses I will NEVER patronize again because of the way they acted during the ScamDEMic.
I have a garden store that I used to enjoy and they were so anal about distancing and masks and everything else inside and OUTSIDE well into 2022. I may never go back.
So you are just going to give them the twenty five dollars. They have already been paid, if you don’t use the gift certificate you are screwing yourself. They get the twenty five bucks for nothing.
We made a similar mental note as regards retailers here in our small city just north of the U.S. border at N/W Washington State.
Especially the restaurants..
Observations on the PA/DE border. Note PA has a 6% sales tax, while DE is 0%.
Began our day shopping electronics at Micro Center before noon, purchasing line was wrapped halfway through the store. Same deals they’ve been running for weeks. Many PCs were already sold out. Many employees, and very helpful. So very high demand observed.
Drove down to Claymont DE on the border. Home Depot was about as busy as a regular weekend, electric trees everywhere. Bed Bath and Beyond was deserted, lots of inventory. Kohls was also surprisingly fewer customers, all women’s side registers were closed, directing customers to 4 open registers. Likely theft deterrence. Wife noted not that many deals, same deals since Halloween. These chains just didn’t really have stand-out savings, even to move inventory.
Christianna Mall was a madhouse, signs on the interstate ramp saying Mall At Capacity, Entry Restricted. Never seen that ever before. Car lots were filled to outer limits. Police were directing traffic. We didn’t plan on going into the mall proper, so no direct observations there.
Cabelas on the permineter was medium busy, signs of being picked over, but they used to have good door buster deals in years past. Lots of inventory left, just scattered. Found a couple of BOGOs for kids, and some really good boots. Love that store.
Best Buy was still very busy, pickup car line was directed around back of building. LOTS of inventory everywhere, especially low end TVs. I call it all the logistics backup that missed last Christmas and arrived in March, plus this years stuff, gives an impression of overloaded, yet lots of people walking around with product. We ended up bailing and not buying anything, since the sales were the same all weekend.
Giving a thumbs-up to Micro Center. Best place to buy tech equipment.
RECORD Black Friday ONLINE sales, though. I don’t doubt that there’s a slowdown but people have been trained for the lats 2 years to do things online vs. physically going out to shop.
I agree completely. This trend away from “brick & mortar” stores to online shopping has been going on for a full decade or more, though I’m sure the last two years of encouraged social distancing has sped up the process.
Aside from food shopping, there’s no advantage to having to fight traffic, find parking and wade through rude people just to purchase an item that can often be found cheaper online. I budget carefully since retiring, and have spent about 20% less overall since altering my shopping behavior.
On credit with extended payments.
Whew!
That was swell!
Get a good night’s rest now and have a great life.
Bye…
Is Petz the plural form?
Maaaaayyyybeeeee!!!
Putz?
Hahahah!
I sensed subdued anger and hostility amongst many in the crowds from the looks of their eyes while Thanksgiving food shopping. Never seen it before.
This is not the most robust economic area of NC. It has a large minority population and is one of the poorer counties in NC. The look was pervasive to me across 3 grocery stores I shopped.
Not surprised you’re from Austin.
I was shopping today at the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave, just outside of Austin. It looked like a regular Saturday. There were definitely no crowds. I experienced the shortest line I’ve ever seen at Marshalls. I didn’t see any crowds or lines at Best Buy either.
All the best people in this area live outside of Austin city limits, over the Travis County line. We are in Dripping Springs, located in Hays County. We got to watch our HS football team win their 6A division 2 regional football playoff game at the San Antonio Alamo yesterday: https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2022/11/25/kyle-koch-combines-big-plays-modesty-for-rampaging-dripping-springs-high-school-football-team/69677232007/
We noted that “Black Friday” has gone the way of “Election Day” as it’s more of an extended period of time and not a single day anymore.
I guess having a specific deadline and having to get something done on a specific date – like voting or getting physically out of one’s home to work – is now being downplayed on purpose. Anything that pulls eyeballs away from screens and forces human interaction is discouraged. I wouldn’t be surprised to start hearing that “bargain shopping is racist.”
The idea appears to be to destroy the work ethic, the vote ethic, and the incentive to participate in the physical market for goods.
This trend glares intensely for me because my mom suffered from agoraphobia; she rarely left the house. All my life I’ve been fighting against the same tendency. Now the plandemic has created a nation of agoraphobes.
Ahhh, so they are blaming the trickle of customers on the lack of “door buster sales” that entice people to camp out all night and say that the sales are no longer for one morning only. That still does not explain why people did not come out sometime during the day to enjoy these sales. She did manage to mention high gas prices and less money for consumers but attributed some of it to “stimulus checks” last year.
They also said that Cyber Monday will be where everyone shops. I doubt it. I cannot wait to see the numbers for next week.
You could have given us a ground report of your area without the contemptuous attitude.
Troll.
?
Petzmom could ‘have given us a ground report of your area without the contemptuous attitude.’
Been to Austin lately? You would have found that they are as proud their contemptuous attitude as they are at keeping Austin Weird..
It will only get worse once the railroad workers go on strike. And I hope everyone has stocked up what they need, including gas.
The real problem is that the deck chairs that would have otherwise been rearranged were supposed to have been supplied by United Furniture. 🥵
Lots of people will be getting a lump of coal to sit,eat and sleep on this Christmas if they were waiting on furniture from United. So sad for the employees…
That’s the worst part of the retail situation…how many EEs across the sector will suddenly find themselves out of a job because of the ongoing planned demolition of the Western economy? Too many. Served up to a dependent-hungry but -abusive (world) government just in time for the Winter of Global Discontent.
United Furniture shareholders, and the money behind them? Probably not so much.
😆 😆 😆 😆 Very clever!
Shoppers Spent Record $9.12 Billion Online on Black Friday, Amid Growing Inflation
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/shoppers-spent-record-9-12-billion-online-black-friday-amid-growing-inflation/
Buy now pay later
At extreme interest rates
The banks getting richer off the poor
I have heard that the interest rates are brutal and enforcement penalties for non payment are abusive/userous. Nothing you need that badly unless it is to eat.
The talking head experts will likely cast some blame on those jack wagon FTX kids, Sam Bankman-Fried and his puke show girlfriend. They scammed the experts out of their Christmas Club savings. No crypto left for Cyber Monday.
One of the effects of amphetamines is that you don’t give a d—.
I haven’t actually noticed that loathsome pair being targeted much yet by the Pravda media.
Perhaps there are a few too many photos out there showing them hobnobbing with the top corruptocrats.
Go someplace else. We don’t need you here.
I see delivery trucks quite frequently in my neighborhood. More now than in the past years.
I suspect it will be a bumper year for “porch pirates”.
I have read reports where FedEx, for example, was shedding jobs, not adding jobs. The job losses from brick and mortar stores isn’t being absorbed from the delivery companies.
Keep in mind that your area may not reflect the general reality: the exception to the rule, so to speak.
So if your area is still prosperous, that is good to hear, but it might not represent the national average.
Imagine how things might be going in the three cities where Lane Furniture abruptly shut down entire factories and fired everyone.
You are correct; this is a big country with a lot of people who have been laid off or are experiencing painful choices because of soaring inflation. The Texas Hill Country is a more prosperous area than most, but as I noted above, I saw no crowds or any rush to load up for Christmas. I was out and about Friday and today.
Austin has a lot of tech employees and I sense nervousness because of all the recent reductions in staff.
I only went out today to my usual destination for this annual shopping weekend, skipping Black Friday. Crowds seemed normal or even larger than usual for the Saturday, there was a fairly long wait at one store to cash out and another had a line to get in. With rare exception, nobody was open on Thursday and almost nobody opened before 7 am Friday. Auto traffic was heavy but moving.
Retail can be somewhat skewed in this region since Canadian shoppers are typically a huge chunk of the traffic and they haven’t really been here in any volume since 2019, so there was certainly some rebound from them. So far local retail isn’t showing signs of collapse, most places that were here in 2019 are still here now and new builds and development are continuing. Local merchants are doing a 2-weekend, 4-day event with a couple dozen participating, as opposed to the usual Small Business Saturday.
Every register manned with decent lines at both stores I visited today. Like three people buying big screen TVs at the same time. I guess they hadn’t heard about the complete collapse of the consumer economy.
Give them a little time…
” I guess they hadn’t heard about the complete collapse of the consumer economy.”
Sometimes I wonder if they actually have heard of it but are in a mood called “eat, drink, and buy for tomorrow we die”.
Not everyone is broke. Some are still quite well off and have money to spend. We fit that category but are cheapskates. Not needed we don’t buy it. We all ready have stuff that I cannot even remember why I bought it that is if I can even find it. Our biggest worry is the upcoming digital dollar and the theft of funds under that guise, you will own nothing and be happy as per Herr Schwab. No we won’t only the so called elites will think it is fun.
Or maybe some had, and are seeking, where possible, to use cash on durable goods before the former loses far more value?
If they are thinking even that far, with luck it may even soon occur to them that they can’t eat a television…
I was in traffic for a bout an hour yesterday. Most of it after I got off the freeway. I realized it was because the car line was way backed up for a popular shopping outlet mall. So not everywhere.
It’s called severe lack of discretionary spending capability. As I commented on another thread (Tucker) even Bezos has advised his customers to knock it off. His reasons can be debated.
Regardless Europe’s ability to spend frivolously is getting ready to be FUBAR’d. Ditto for many in the New England area. In a land of logical thinking this means a sharp contraction in most country’s economies. This will no doubt materialize/be felt early 2023.
We have been looking for the potential dead man switch that sets this all in motion. At this time I picture us walking thru a field of land mines. Step carefully.
I thought Bezos’ message made perfect sense for his lousy company.
“Don’t make large important purchases on things that may help you survive, such as a home freezer, or a vehicle you really need. Instead, spend all your remaining discretionary cash on yet another load of my cheap crap from Communist China!”
Depending on where you live and the company you keep, staying home tends to reduce your chances of getting shot, but, research on this topic is still ongoing and you should not jump to any conclusions.
i was in Manhattan, KS yesterday (Black Friday) and I parked near the store entrance at noon. Hung out at the slightly empty Starbucks while my wife, daughter and son-in-law looked without any hurry. When it came time to check out I watched them walk up to the cashier without a wait.
Watch for stores to increase sale volume and price cuts. My daughter said she needed food prices to match the price cuts in the niknaks
I suggest you remove your Mr. Magoo glasses. This site is full of information that is often scary, but not propaganda, many times the truth is scary. So run away, stick your head back in the sand, but it won’t help.
Frankly, anytime that I think about the current state of things it depresses the heck out of me. I have the means but don’t feel like buying anything that I don’t need. I am demoralized, beat down and feel so sad for what has happened to society. Go suck it big Corp.! I will celebrate if the big corporations suffer and some more ceo’s get bounced out.
I agree MJ. Just can’t work up any cheer this year. 😴 all my shopping will be gift cards. 🎁 purchased on line. I also give to charities. We have a children’s home for orphans in my town that I enjoy giving to in memory of passed relatives…
Normally I don’t go shopping on weekends because there are packed. This morning I went to Sam’s and Kroger and there few people and open self check out units.
LOL!
I did all of my Black Friday shopping online this year. Prior to this weekend, a lot of stores—both online and traditional—were offering early Black Friday deals, too. None of this is going to show up in any in-person ground report from the local mall. People are still shopping, but from home.
Forgot to mention that Walmart had a ton of “online only” deep discounts on the Monday-Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. Not sure if other major retailers did the same, but it was even less incentive to go deal with the crowds at the physical stores when you couldn’t even get the discount in-person.
If the books don’t get cooked, we should see the overall numbers in a month or so. One important factor is adjustment for inflation, not insignificant this past year. Another factor is whether shopping is coming from cash flow or being financed and what those numbers are.
1) The books will get cooked.
2) The shopping is on credit.
One small counterpoint. The Costco in El Paso, Tx was so crowded and busy on Friday that by late Friday they ran out of hotdog buns!
The Costco near Kino Pkwy in Tucson AZ was very crowded today, 11/26/2022.
These 2 stores seem to have record number of shppers.
In the food court? $1.50 hot dog combo is hard to beat.
This has not been my experience. Two weeks ago, at the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville (sizeable mall), it was insane. Could not find a parking spot and inside was wall to wall people. Wait times at restaurants was 45-60 minutes. Even commented that no one would know there was a recession.
Last week, same experience in my local Pennsylvania mall.
Cannot speak to Black Friday crowds since I avoid shopping on that day or weekend, but judging from the traffic, people were out and shopping.
This thread is making me wonder about the size of the crowds in solid blue versus solid red areas.
I was unable to be out and observe in person this weekend because of medical event in family. Enjoying reading what all of you have seen and done…
Likely demographics are a factor. In my experience, Nashville had a large blue “diverse population, whereas locally it was more conservative.
Hope you are doing well.
What is the name of your local PA mall?
Palmer Park Mall
We’ve become the Soviet Union.
On TV we observe a “hyper-reality”…
While everyday we observe the objective one…
Sad…
According to a zerohedge post, a few billion has been spent online vs in store amid inflation
Black Friday, like election day, has become black month.
Made some gifts for my family from the hobbies I do, if not that, gift cards always come in handy. We really dont need anything else, but there are charities that we give or donate to. How did it affect my town, greater area, or the country? I wont know until I read something about it.
When the discount grocery stores have a head of lettuce for $3.99 (today), people have more serious calculations to consider when it comes to gift shopping.
One consequence might be seeing a return to celebrating Christmas with church and family events; wonder if it’s even possible that door-to-door caroling, sharing tins of homemade cookies and homemade gifts will become popular again, even the mailing of Christmas cards?
This is what our family is doing. We are planning Christ-mas with friends and family and dogs. Austin & Dallas & Plano. We are NOT. focused on ‘gifts’ from the Public Retailers.
We like to vacation in Europe at Thanksgiving- we can get away and not be missed at work. The crowds in Potsdam and Berlin, at the first Advent Sunday weekend of Christmas markets have been huge and Fun after being closed for 2 years.
The Ukrainian/CIA war weighs on peoples minds, and we have met several people working here in East Germany from Ukraine. We brought some toys for the Berliner Aid organization, the kids are not responsible for the foolishness of the adults.
I know where people were today….at a well known Christmas Tree Farm in CT!
We’ve never gotten a tree “day” after Thanksgiving (yesterday was rainy crappy day) but went out this morning with all the children home.
My word, tens of thousands I’m sure passed thru getting their tree today. Cars lined up as far as one could see.
It was nice to see the common goal in action ❤️
I’m seeing stories that the shopping was all online and strong – can’t tell the truth about Biden’s economy.
“Unexpectedly.”
Isn’t it time we designate November & December as Poverty Pride Months?
Have many of the shoppers just ordered online instead rather than pay for gas etc. to the mall or is this Adobe report baloney?
According to Adobe Analytics data (and the Pundit) “Shoppers Spent a Record $9.12 Billion Online on Black Friday, Amid Growing Inflation”
“Adobe expects e-commerce activity to remain strong throughout the weekend, with consumers set to spend about $4.5 billion on Saturday and $5 billion on Sunday. Cyber Monday is expected to be the season’s and year’s biggest online shopping day, producing more than $11 billion in sales,” the report said.
People are still spending money, and depending on where you live many poor haven’t felt the sting of inflation due to government subsidies.
Only the working class stiffs are taking it in the ass
“Scratching their puzzlers” is hilarious.
Humm, CNBC posted a news article that Black Friday online sales were way up – 9B.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/25/black-friday-online-sales-to-hit-new-record-expected-to-top-9-billion.html
I went to two stores on black Friday. Both were super crowded. Yankee Candle – which this is the time of year they are always crowded – they sell those gifts for the office secret Santa or teachers you don’t know well, neighbors etc.
And Target. I was really surprised how busy Target was mid-afternoon given they’ve been doing Black Friday all month and didn’t have anything special or new out for Black Friday.
CFP headline:: “Black Friday online breaks record.”
Ah, I miss the good old days when you could count on a stampeding crowd of enthusiastic shoppers almost knocking the doors down at Wally World at 5 AM and crushing under-foot or neutralizing them with a ‘Merry Christmas’ punch to the face anyone that would get in their way of getting a good deal on a toaster or some other precious ‘made in chy-na’ garbage.
I live in the panhandle of florida, and I’m suprised at how many people are out shopping. I mean its the same chaos as every Christmas season. I’m shocked.
I’m not sure about consumer collapse as to black Friday. The whole BF thing has changed in the last ten years with online sales taking a step to the front. I will say I think this has really hurt local retail as people are now staying home and shopping there. The multi nationals have figured that one out at the expense of main street. I’d like to see overall numbers after the weekend.
Also I’d like someone to do a net impact analysis on online sales vis a vis the labor market. Stores don’t need employees if people don’t come in.
Good point and where do laid-off or unhired workers spend the money that they don’t have?
I have a feeling this will be like everything else; the truth will trickle out over time and ‘what does it matter anyway?’.
One word: Bidenomics