Spend Wisely Today!

According to a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend by BIGresearch, more shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend – and spent more – than a year ago.

According to the survey, 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. People also spent more, with the average shopper this weekend spending $365.34, up from last year’s $343.31. Total spending reached an estimated $45.0 billion. Early reports indicated that many shoppers were also buying for themselves - in addition to gifts - though mostly where they saw bargains.

As retailers leverage their websites to offer Black Friday prices to shoppers who didn’t want to fight crowds, the percentage of people who shopped online this weekend rose a healthy 15.2 percent, from 28.5 percent last year to 33.6 percent this year – a strong sign heading into Cyber Monday.

But retailers remain unsure how much people will spend before Christmas in an economy that's still bumpy. Shoppers, grappling with an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, remain careful about spending and driven by deals.

Discounts, particularly early-morning specials, were deep enough that many shoppers say they bought more than they had planned. But some say that means they're done, and they spent less than last year. Does this mean that the euphoria about holiday spending will flame out?

I doubt it. I think once Cyber Monday is over and the retailers report their revenue numbers this Thursday, we will see the next round of discounts somewhere in the middle of the month of December. The psychology of money is powerful. It probably felt great for consumers to finally buy stuff this weekend – and it felt better to buy what they thought were “bargains.”

This reminds me of the phenomenon that occurred in the 90’s with auto financing. Once the manufacturers offered 0% financing with rebates, there was no going back. Any loan interest rate above 0% became unacceptable – and in the end unsustainable.

So let’s sit back and watch the ride. Maybe the new motto this year will be, “If you discount it, they will come.”

Happy clicking – all 106 million of you!

Even Black Friday is Different Now...

Black Friday – an American thing - is the day following Thanksgiving Day and has become known as the tradition start of the holiday shopping season. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000.

This has been going now for 20 years – yes that’s right – since the early 1980s when a trend began to emerge that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black). Hence the term, “Black Friday.”

This year, the downward trend has continued for many retailers, both traditional and online. Sales are down sharply compared to several years ago for many brick and mortar stores and the holiday season including Black Friday is shaping up to be the last chance for retailers to make up for the lackluster sales they've had for most of the year.

With Black Friday once again falling later in the month, and less than a month before Christmas, retailers have been trying to get consumers shopping earlier rather than counting on Black Friday and the few remaining weekends in December to provide most of their sales. Online retailers, as well as brick & mortar retailers with e-commerce sites have had the advantage here as they have been promoting online sales since Halloween.

Look for retailers to embrace social networking this year as a part of their strategy for the holiday season. Look for exclusive deals and contests to appear on stores’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. And now with the widespread use of smartphones, consumers might choose to stay in bed Friday morning and just buy stuff while still under the covers. The super-sites for Black Friday commerce is just amazing such as:

BlackFriday.com
GottaDeal.com
BlackFriday.info
BlackFriday.net
BlackFriday2010
CouponCabin.com
Walletpop.com

And yet, many people will avoid this and yield to more old-fashioned Thanksgiving traditions – like getting up at midnight and waiting 4 hours in line in the dark cold with other eager consumers obsessed with getting that must-have item. Waiting in long traffic jams and checkout lines (“I hope the person in front of me doesn’t use cash!”); bumping into herds of people & bags on escalators, elevators, stairs and halls; and let’s not even talk about rest rooms.

Don’t you just love the holidays with feelings of peace, joy and love?

I wonder if there’s an app for that….

Back in the Saddle

Yeah, I know – it’s been a while since I’ve written any rantings on the blog. From Labor Day on, my life has been a blur.

During the past 2 months it seems like I’ve been in event planning mode – from recognizing community / business partnerships with Granite State schools and celebrating school volunteerism in New Hampshire on behalf of New Hampshire Partners in Education to coordinating a national teacher conference for the Jump$tart Coalition.

It might sound like a lot of grunt work (and there’s plenty), but in reality I choose to see myself as being in the feel-good business.

1. In September, over 200 community partnerships were recognize3d at our annual NHPIE Gold Circle Awards. These partnerships provided instructional, financial, or volunteer support to their local schools.


2. In October, 186 Granite State schools and their volunteer programs were spotlighted at our 29th Annual Blue Ribbon Award ceremony. The contributions of individual school volunteers were also noted and celebrated by the 500 people in attendance.


3. Also at the school Blue Ribbon awards, we announced the results of our annual Power of the Penny campaign. This is essentially – an old-fashioned penny drive that schools conduct for goals or causes that they select. Many of the schools allow the children themselves to decide what to raise the money for. This year, 36 schools participated and collectively, the children raised over 2.8 million pennies - $28,000 – and all of it was donated to charity! The children learned a great deal about the power of a penny and the impact of charitable giving.


4. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, the Jump$tart Coalition conducted its 2nd annual National Educator Conference. Over 200 teachers from 47 states attended the only national conference specifically devoted to personal finance. The event was very well received by the teachers as well as the exhibitors and we all feel good about motivating teachers to bring this life skill into the classroom.

So now I look up and Thanksgiving is next week! And that can only mean one thing – Black Friday is around the corner. Time to refocus my attention to my passion – advocating youth financial literacy. Giddy-up! (and it still feels good!)