10 December 2012
PROFITS: Shopping sprees set new records.
By Hannah Lerstad, Staff Writer
The shopping season has arrived, and with it comes a dramatic increase in sales throughout the country. An estimated 59 billion dollars was spent over the Thanksgiving holiday, leaving many people optimistic about the effects it will have on the economy.
Black Friday sales went up seven billion dollars from last year. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, ABC News said: “247 million shoppers visited stores and websites, with customers spending an average of 423 dollars per person.”
Black Friday also had its biggest increase in online shopping ever. For the first time, online shopping reached over one billion dollars in sales on Black Friday.
Despite recent employee protests, Walmart reported its best Black Friday profits ever. The Huffington Post said Walmart had “more shoppers than last year and nearly ten million register transactions between 8 p.m. Thursday and 12 a.m. Friday.”
“I went shopping in the late morning after cross-country practice. I went to Forever 21 to buy a Christmas gift for a friend,” Poly student Ethan Dawson (11) said.
Cyber Monday was another indicator of growing consumer confidence this holiday season. This year set a new record of over 1.5 billion dollars spent on Cyber Monday. This was an increase of 28 percent from last year’s Cyber Monday profits. About half of the sales on Cyber Monday occurred around noon and early afternoon, which indicates that many people made purchases from work. ABC News said the “most-purchased items were consumer electronics, including phones and tablets, followed by clothing like jeans and sweaters.” Consumers have also taken to “showrooming,” which is when a shopper compares the price of a product in store to the price of the product online to find the better deal.
Amazon.com had huge profits this Cyber Monday. “Nine of the top 10 best-selling products on Amazon.com have been Kindles, Kindle accessories and digital content,” the Huffington Post reported.
With so much revenue raised this year, economists are taking Black Friday and Cyber Monday profit margins to mean that Americans are gaining more confidence in the economy.