According to some retail analysts, by fighting an internecine battle to outdo each other’s Black Friday stampedes, brick-and-mortar retailers are playing to the strengths of their real competition online retailers while collectively eroding their own key differentiation, the consumer shopping experience.
Black Friday is going to be the darkest post-Thanksgiving sale event yet. Rather than starting in the pre-dawn hours, many stores and malls will open at midnight. Others, including industry leaders Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, will push the battle into Thanksgiving Day.
Research conducted for the National Retail Federation estimates that 77 million US consumers, almost a third of the total, are “definitely” planning to shop that day. The study also estimated that another 74 million consumers would consider going shopping as well, depending on the strength of retailers’ offerings.
Many economists have forecasted that this year sales may be surprisingly stable particularly in the technology area as many shoppers have made their intentions clear that despite the hard year, many Americans and Europeans alike will not change their shopping habits, at least not yet.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com