Even after doling out discounts on electronics and clothes, US retailers struggled to entice shoppers to Black Friday sales events, putting pressure on the industry as it heads into the final weeks of the US holiday season.
Spending tumbled an estimated 11 percent over the weekend, the Washington-based National Retail Federation said on Sunday.
Additionally, more than 6 million shoppers who had been expected to hit stores never showed up.
Consumers were unmoved by retailers’ aggressive discounts and longer Thanksgiving holiday hours, raising concern that signs of recovery in recent months will not endure.
The industry group had predicted a 4.1 percent sales gain for last month and this month — the best performance since 2011. Still, the trade group cast the latest numbers in a positive light, saying it showed shoppers were confident enough to skip the initial rush for discounts.
“The holiday season and the weekend are a marathon, not a sprint,” federation chief executive Matthew Shay said on a conference call. “This is going to continue to be a very competitive season.”
Consumer spending fell to US$50.9 billion over the past four days, down from US$57.4 billion last year, according to the federation. It was the second year in a row that sales declined during the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend, which had long been famous for long lines and frenzied crowds.
Retailers rolled out their usual “door buster” specials in a bid to lure customers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc sold an RCA tablet for US$29, DVD movies for US$1.96 each and a 50-inch high-definition television for US$218. Best Buy Co had a 55-inch Samsung 4K television for US$899, hundreds less than its usual price.
Even so, many shoppers stayed home. The federation had predicted that 140.1 million customers would visit retailers this past weekend, a small decline from last year’s 140.3 million. Instead, just 133.7 million showed up.
An effort by some retailers to put items on sale ahead of Thanksgiving might have contributed to sluggish demand on “Black Friday,” Shay said.
The slower foot traffic means retailers will have to wring more money from consumers this month, including during yesterday’s “Cyber Monday” e-commerce blitz. Holiday shopping is key for US retailers — with sales in November and December accounting for about 19 percent of annual revenue, according to the federation — and more of that is shifting online.
The Web might not be a savior for traditional retail, though. While e-commerce orders are growing, they are still dwarfed by brick-and-mortar sales. The novelty of Cyber Monday also is dimming: The number of shoppers participating in the event yesterday was projected to decline.
So far, holiday shoppers have spent US$22.7 billion online this season, up 15 percent from a year earlier, according to ComScore Inc. That includes more than US$1.5 billion on Black Friday.
The e-commerce growth means shopping malls have to work harder to get people in the door. The University Town Center — a brand-new mall in Sarasota, Florida — was only moderately busy on Saturday evening, with more customers in the corridors than in the stores.
Ariana Bravo, a 16-year-old student from Lakewood Ranch, Florida, said she used her employee discount at Pacific Sunwear to buy a couple of small items, but was not lured by any promotions.
“It seems like they’re the normal sales that they already have, just all in one day,” she said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure