By the Numbers: Black Friday

Posted by Alan Sanders on Nov 30, 2010 in Telegram Past News

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving has been the biggest day for finding huge sales on just about everything.  Black Friday always brings with it major discounts and reductions to swarms of people trying to get in on the deals.  Stores all across America experience jumps in sales and traffic to their stores and websites. 

This year, the overall spending over Black Friday and the following weekend rose from $41.2 billion last year to $45 billion.  That’s an 8% increase from last year.  Also, online spending rose 9% from last year with $648 million spent.  PayPal reported a 27% increase in spending this Black Friday from last year and a 310% jump in overall mobile shopping.

These increases are a moderate jump from last year, but in order to get the best deals, you would generally have to get to the store right at opening.  This varied between retailers from midnight to the early hours of the morning.  Sometimes, certain deals are offered to only a small amount of customers, say the first 10 to take advantage of it.  However, not much of this was talked about this year.

It is estimated that 25% of holiday shopping is done on Black Friday and the following weekend.  This leaves the majority of shopping to be done, so Black Friday may not be the only time to see significant price cuts. 

It is clear that many people took advantage of the deals on Black Friday.  The general trend appears to be an overall increase in spending and traffic, and next year we will see if this pattern will continue.