Black (Bleak?) Friday
In the United States, the term Black Friday is used to describe the day after Thanksgiving, marking the official start of the consumer Christmas shopping season, even though we’ve been seeing Christmas ads and decorations in the shopping centers since Halloween.
To put it mildly, projections for consumer activity this year have got retailers scared spitless. The global economic downturn, it would seem, has inspired US consumers to return to a more traditional Christmas where material gifts (especially cheap plastic crap) occupy a far less central role.
This does not sound like a horrible thing to me, but I’m not a retailer.
Seems to me that any business that relies specifically on a traditional shopping period at the end of the year to survive, probably needs to review their business practices.
I don’t wish bad business or a bad holiday season to anybody, but economic change is in the wind, and the survivors will be those who are flexible enough to bend with it.
The NYT today had a hilarious article today decrying the sacrifices Americans are making during this “recession”, like not buying the new pair of designer jeans. Classic!