Black Friday
It’s now official. Black Friday three days ago generated more in-store revenue than any other day in history: $10.6 billion dollars (as opposed to the previous record, $10.3 billion dollars last year). It also had the highest body count (three counting two shmoes who shot each other in a running gun battle in a Palm Desert Toys R Us). But lest you think this bodes well, for the economy, retailers managed this little feat by cutting margins down to the bone; profits are way, way down relative to last year. Check out some early analysis here and >here.
I’ve gone over the numbers that have been put out there, and I see no evidence that this means good news for the rest of the month. Putting aside the shortness of the post-Black Friday shopping season, shoppers are clearly buying deals and retailers are racing to the bottom to provide those deals. This is not going to help tottering retailers like Circuit City.
This doesn’t give manufacturers much room to produce must-have, high margin branded products, which is an absolute prerequisite for retailer profits in the Christmas season.
If you’re not already wasting occupying your working hours with The Order of the Stick, Rich Burlew, in my opinion, sums up the current retailer dilemma best.
