Only from the lilly white tower of rich liberalism the Times inhabits could we get such a silly article
Black Friday was big — but with a big caveat.
With stores dangling steep discounts and consumers worried about the economy, retail sales surged on the day after Thanksgiving, yet the amount of money each shopper spent fell, according to two reports released yesterday.
Got that? Discounts are now bad. It’s not like they have been going on for decades upon decades. I suppose it is hard to notice from snooty liberalas writing for the New York Times, who are above all us peons. It is important that they spin any good news into bad, though.
But, wait a moment
Sales rose 8.3 percent on Friday compared with last year, the biggest increase in three years, according to ShopperTrak, a research company. On Friday and Saturday combined, sales rose 7.2 percent.
So sales went up, which is countered by
But shoppers did not splurge, spending an estimated $348 each over the holiday weekend, down from $360 last year, a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation found.
Did it ever occur to the rich white liberals at the Times that many of the big ticket items were less expensive to start with? Consider electronics. As little as a year ago, a 42 inch HDTV would go for $1500 or more. Now, you can get one for under a grand. I bought my 512mb MP3 player two years ago for $100. I can get 2mb easily for the same price nowadays. The Times did grace us with this explanation, albeit way down in the article.
They also mention, but not very well, that people are shopping more on-line. What people do is they go to the stores, look around, get some ideas, see what the products actually look and feel like, then take their list and go order on-line. Some of us do not have our own personal shoppers like the elitists at the Gray Lady.
Granted, higher energy prices are taking a bite out of people’s paycheck, and the constant economic doom and gloom from the liberal media has people worried. But, as usual, people will get out and buy. They always do. They know, from years and years of experience, that there will be some great sales as we get closer to Christmas.
One thing that never seems to get mentioned is that the big Black Friday sales are occuring earlier and earlier in the day. Many people are just not going to get up after a big Thanksgiving meal the day before. I sure as hell won’t. And they won’t bother coming in by 11 or 12, as they figure all the big sale merchandise will be gone. Retailers need to back off their early hours.
