Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: NRF says Americans plan to get their pumpkin on
Check out the spending boost planned by Americans for Halloween.
The National Retail Federation said spending by the 148 million Americans who partake in the “spooky” October holiday is expected to surge almost 18 percent this year as revelers look for any reason not to think about high unemployment and a shaky housing market.
“In recent years, Halloween has provided a welcome break from reality, allowing many Americans a chance to escape from the stress the economy has put on their family and incomes,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
“This year, people are expected to embrace Halloween with even more enthusiasm, and will have an entire weekend to celebrate since the holiday falls on a Sunday,” he added.
Americans will spend an average of $66.28 on costumes, candy and decorations (or a total of $5.8 billion), up from last year’s average of $56.31. However, that is still short of the $66.54 spent in 2008, according to the study conducted by BIGresearch for the NRF. Retailers love Halloween because it comes between the back-to-school and December holidays in luring consumers into stores.
Those selling the latest costumes have reason to be the happiest as four out of 10 people are planning to get dressed up, up from 34 percent last year, according to the survey. And in a related note almost 12 percent will dress their pets too!
A third of those polled will throw or attend a Halloween party, almost three-quarters plan to hand out candy and about half will carve a pumpkin as well as decorate their house or yard, according to the study. In addition, 21 percent will visit a haunted house and 32 percent will take their children trick-or-treating.
Check Out Line: A little less love this Valentine’s Day
Check out retail executives’ worries coming true.
At the National Retail Federation’s annual convention earlier this month, retail executives and analysts said they were worried there would be no big event to get consumers back into the stores and get them shopping until the back-to-school season.
Still recovering from the holiday spending and watching jobs evaporate by the day, it appears consumers don’t intend to jump back into shopping for Valentine’s Day, the first main holiday since Christmas.
The NRF said its 2009 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey found that consumers plan to spend an average $102.50 on Valentine’s gifts and merchandise – down from last year’s $122.98 per person.
”Valentine’s Day this year will be more about small tokens of affection rather than extravagant purchases,” said Phil Rist, executive vice president at BIGresearch, which conducted the survey.
The survey found that 91 percent of people said they will spend the most on their spouse — $67.22, with other family members, such as children, getting about one-fifth of their budget, or $20.95.
Also in the basket:
Those amounts are unbelievably precise. I think providing ranges (such as “78% will spend between $50 and $75 on their spouse) would provide much more information. I’d bet cash money that not a single person surveyed answered a number mentioned in the article.
Sorting through Black Friday data
Black Friday has come and gone but what on earth happened at the cash registers over the Thanksgiving weekend? The data is trickling in, and so are the early critiques. (See our previous blogs: Treat Black Friday reports cautiously and Black Friday data spurs more questions than answers)
Here is a break down of the latest reports and what data is still to come:
According its 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch and published on Sunday, the NRF said more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend (which includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projections for Sunday), up from 147 million shoppers last year.
Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend, up 7.2 percent over last year’s $347.55. Total spending reached an estimated $41.0 billion, up from $34.6 billion a year ago.
The results came from a survey that polled 3,370 consumers from Nov. 27-29. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percent.
ShopperTrak:
There’s still a lot of people working, a lot of people with cash, a lot of people with credit. Those people are always prepared to buy – if the price is right. Thanks to sites like http://www.blackfridayads2009.info which utilizes both ads scans and relevant links and hot deals available now, there will be plenty of action and sales on Black Friday. The only people who need to slow down their spending are the elected people in Washington DC 
-
Resident Shop Talk Expert
-
