Thanksgiving / Black Friday stats at a  Glance:

National Retail Federation (NRF)

* Traffic Up:  More than 141 million unique shoppers have already or will have shopped by the end of the big Thanksgiving weekend, up from 139 million over the same time frame last year.

* Spending Down:  Shoppers spent $407.02 from Thursday through Sunday, down from $423.55 last year.

* Young are Active:  More than three-quarters (76.2%) of 18 – 34 year olds shopped or planned to shop over the holiday weekend – higher than any other age group.

Read the NRF Release

 

ShopperTrak

* Traffic Up: When compared to Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year, brick-and-mortar shopper traffic increased 2.8 percent.

* Traffic Plummets 5% in Northeast; Up in All Other Regions

* Spending Up:  Retail sales increased by 2.3 percent.

Read the ShopperTrak Release

 

IBM Benchmark

*  Black Friday Online Spending Up 19 Percent; Mobile Sales Surge 43 Percent

 

“Mobile Sales = 21.8% of Total Online Sales” by Leena Rao at TechCrunch.  “Tablets drove 14.4 percent of all online sales, double that of smartphones, which accounted for 7.2 percent of all online sales. On average, tablet users spent $132.75 per order compared to smartphone users who spent $115.63, a difference of 15 percent.”  Read more

 

“Walmart Sells 2.8 Million Towels”  Read more

 

“Amazon Plans Drone Delivery (in 30 minutes!)” at USA Today via CBS 60 Minutes.  “Bezos told 60 Minutes that the service could be up and running in as few as four years — although he noted that he is an optimist when it comes to such things.  “One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” the company said.”  Read more

 

See the Amazon Flying Drones in Action on CBS – 60 Minutes

 

“Kroger testing Turkey Hill Market concept in central Ohio” by Mary Vanac at The Columbus Dispatch.  “Kroger is trying out three of the markets exclusively in the Columbus market…at 7,500 square feet, the recently opened Turkey Hill Market is smaller than the average Kroger store (67,000 square feet), while still about 70 percent bigger than the chain’s convenience-store-sized Turkey Hill Mini Markets (4,000 square feet)…a key for shoppers like Corfios: paying grocery-store prices at a smaller store.”  Read more

 

“Costco Owe’s Sunland $4 Million for Peanuts: Court Trustee”  by Robin Fornoff at Clovis Journal.  “Costco — one of Sunland’s largest creditors and also Sunland’s largest customer — has asked the bankruptcy court to lift a stay and let it reclaim what’s left of peanuts it fronted Sunland $20 million to purchase and process…Federal Judge David Thuma has set a final hearing Dec. 23 to settle the issue.” Read more

 

“Grocers Shunning Online Risk Losing Their Best Customers:  Prosperous Families and Those with Children” at The Economist.  “Safeway, the second-largest supermarket chain in North America, is the only one besides Ahold with a substantial online operation. Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, remains hesitant. Neil Ashe, its head of e-commerce, has questioned whether the chain’s budget-minded customers want groceries delivered. But this may be changing.”  Read more

 

“Costco’s DC gas battle: ‘If this was done back in the ’40s, blood would be everywhere’ “ by Mike DeBonis at Washington Post.  “The branding discrepancy is an indication of the gas station’s tortuous history, a battle that has stretched nearly two years…“This is serious, serious business,” said Bob King, a veteran civic activist who lives in the neighboring Fort Lincoln neighborhood and supports the gas station. “If this was done back in the ’40s, blood would be everywhere. There would be a shootout at Bladensburg Road just like the shootout at the O.K. Corral.”  Read more

 

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