Christmas Shopping Propaganda?

[SanFranciscan]

Nearly everyone agrees that the economy is majorly messed up and that double-digit unemployment may be permanent. Yet the media which reports this also says that holiday spending is up from this time last year. From what I saw Black Friday was Ghost Town Friday until the "tree lighting ceremony" grew near in our biggest shopping district, despite the stores opening early in the mornings. I don't know how much of that foot traffic spent much money on merchandise late at night because I got my groceries and went home by sunset without going to the tree with the crowd.

Do you believe that spending is up much, or is this just propaganda put out by the media at the insistence of their advertisers? Maybe what I witnessed was the exception, but I am wondering if the claims of buying frenzies are just an attempt to create what does not exist by implying that anyone not out shopping is not in with the in-crowd.

 

[pixiewings71]

Well I'm pretty close to where you are and our mall was packed on BF, absolutely packed. DBF and I only went in for jeans at Old Navy, he only had 2 pair of jeans that weren't holy so he needed some new ones. We went later in the day and had a hard time finding parking! I don't know about sales numbers being up or down but I do know that the mall was back to its normal self on Sunday.

 

[vicki_c]

Every person I know who did BF shopping talked about the humongous lines at registers, no parking at the malls, etc. -- I don't think it's propaganda.

 

[snowywhite89]

Nearly everyone agrees that the economy is majorly messed up and that double-digit unemployment may be permanent. Yet the media which reports this also says that holiday spending is up from this time last year. From what I saw Black Friday was Ghost Town Friday until the "tree lighting ceremony" grew near in our biggest shopping district, despite the stores opening early in the mornings. I don't know how much of that foot traffic spent much money on merchandise late at night because I got my groceries and went home by sunset without going to the tree with the crowd.

Do you believe that spending is up much, or is this just propaganda put out by the media at the insistence of their advertisers? Maybe what I witnessed was the exception, but I am wondering if the claims of buying frenzies are just an attempt to create what does not exist by implying that anyone not out shopping is not in with the in-crowd.

We go to our local mall at 4 am and the parking lot was full. We went to Kohl's and the two lines wrapped around the store. People had tons of merchandise. A lady in line told us that Walmart was a madhouse at midnight.

Every store we went in had a huge line. I had to wait in line to eat in the food court.

We went to Target and there was a blue line around the entire perimeter of the store. We asked what that was. It was the line earlier in the day. It was down to just about 20 people when we got there at 10 am.

Everybody had arms full of stuff. People were buying.

 

[Colleen27]

We're in one of the harder hit areas of the country as far as unemployment goes, but the mall we were at and the few stand alone stores we hit were all quite busy. More than a typical year at the mall, though I think part of that was the midnight opening because it was also a younger crowd than you tend to find at 5am.

But it is hard to judge spending based on crowds these days, given the popularity of shopping online. I got all my Best Buy deals online, and that's one store that did seem less crazy than usual but that could be because so many people took advantage of shopping online on Thanksgiving rather than fight the crowds.

 

[Brandi1leigh]

I didn't shop on BF, but driving by various stores the parking lots were packed! And it lasted. My mom and I went to a mall today and there were probably twice as many people there as there usually are. I believe that spending was up this year. Maybe that's a good sign for the future economy.

PS. I'm in Texas (Austin).

 

[MrsPete]

I'm seeing plenty of signs around here that the economy is better. A couple people I know who'd been out of work are back in good, career jobs again. My husband's company is making some expensive equipment purchases, something they haven't done in a couple years.

You can't get a parking place at the mall, even mid-afternoon. I went to Target tonight, and it was packed.

And why would the media -- who hates everyone and WANTS to find negative things to say -- promote things as better than they really are?

 

[luvmy3]

I didn't go out on BF but the stores were packed today and traffic was horrendous on the main road where all the stores and shopping centers are. I'm sure there are areas where its just the opposite though.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

I worry more that people still don't have money, but are racking up more credit card bills they can't pay, all in the name of making things look better at Christmas.

 

[Kathi OD]

I had heard on our local station that BF sales were not as good as retailers had hoped. Evidently people only bought the deep discounted stuff. Here I was thinking that was propaganda.

 

[apnep]

Nearly everyone agrees that the economy is majorly messed up and that double-digit unemployment may be permanent. Yet the media which reports this also says that holiday spending is up from this time last year.

Sure I believe it, because the PRICE of everthing is up too. Do they report the stats on price inflation and how that effects spending increases over last year? I am not a BF shopper (can't stand the crowds), but went out cuz my DSis was here. It was packed everywhere we went...

 

[lyncecelia]

I worked Black Friday at my local mall. On my way to work (started my shift around 5 AM) there was a HUGE line outside of Best Buy in the freezing rain. The mall was busy all day, it was insane! At one point our line was down quite a ways....didn't seem like propaganda to me....

 

[Anjelica]

This Black Friday was busier than last year - sales figure's nationwide show that hence the "factual" aspect. In my own experience, in my local area, it definetly was busier than last year - however I take that with a grain of salt as that is my view/experience in my local area.

Now - something I did find interesting was the weekend after Black Friday the mall was not as busy as last years weekend after Black Friday. Again though my snapshot is very narrow as I didn't read if the weekend after Black Friday, nationwide, was busier than last year.

 

[disneychrista]

Kohls was CRAZY busy even at 3:30am (when I was there) the line was wrapped a good 1/3 way around the store. I was only there to drop off my daughter for work and to wait out the 30 mins for JcPenny to open, so I could get my snowglobe.

Now the Mall, an hour away, was very uncrowded on Saturday.

I have not done any Christmas Shopping as of yet.

 

[Purseval]

This year was slightly better than last year. Last year was one of the worst in a long, long time. That's the part they are leaving out.

 

[vicki_c]

They just announced on the 11PM news that Cyber Monday sales were up 20% from last year.

 

[luvsJack]

The stores were crazy here too for Black Friday until around 1:00pm. And then the stores emptied down to a regular shopping day.

At 6 am you couldn't find a parking space at our mall, at 1:15 it was no problem--its usually quite the opposite. Seemed that most people were strictly there for the Doorbuster prices and nothing else. At 12:45 our Walmart was a ghost town. And I was told it was that way by about 6am.

I would assume that the purpose of those deep deals on BF is to get people in the stores and then of course they buy things that are not on sale too. Not so this year around here. I know myself, if it wasn't a BF sale I didn't even look at it. So, even though the actual sales in number may have been good; I wonder about profits for that day.

In our area at least, you can always tell how people are looking at spending for the holidays. Going to be a big one? Not too many people out at 3 am on BF (they come later). Going to be "not so big"? LOTS of people out and about at 3 am, but tapers off later. This year certainly looks like the latter.

 

[rusty4]

OP, I do think that they are trying to put a positive spin on things. Do I think more people were spending than last year. Yes. But that doesn't mean that things are not bad. In fact for our extended family things are much much worse.

I have a DB on unemployment since the summer. No chance of a job where he lives in PA. He is in a very rural area with no jobs. Has a house to worry about so he can not just up and leave without some good plan in place not to mention a job.

DFIL was just let go on Monday. He is a government contractor. Apparently if he applies for unemployment he loses his security clearance. So for now he has to wait it out and see if another contractor will pick him up. Though right now they are not getting any new contracts until at least the first of the year.

My other brother just had to file for bankruptcy.

Then one of our close friends just lost his job a month and half ago and his employer is fighting the unemployment. He has been without anything for awhile now.

DH and I were talking about how we have never been this close to people losing their jobs and homes before. Oh and I forgot to mention my own parents. We are going to have to start helping them with food because they are barely scraping by on their fixed incomes now. Costs keep rising for them. Actually for everyone. Food is outrageous right now.

In our case I have bought things earlier and am very close to be done. Spending less this year on the kids. But more on our parents to help both of their families through this hard time. Everyone I have talked to is cutting back. I will be more interested to see the final tallies of the season than just BF. Though I worry about what a PP stated. How many people are charging because they believe things are getting better only to have them struggle after-wards and make things worse.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/27/news/economy/Black_friday_2010_sales/index.htm

 

[ancestry]

I don't think it is media hype. From what I have personally experienced Black Friday this year was WAY more crowded and crazy that it was last year. Last year it was like a ghost town in the stores I was in (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) Online deals especially on Amazon are going within seconds -- yes literally seconds. Although online is hard to judge because one never knows how many items are available.

Most of the people I know have more stability and security this year than they had last year. Last year everyone seemed to be afraid of loosing their jobs. This year not so much. Many of those that I know who were unemployed are now employed even though in some cases their employment is beneath where they were before.

I don't believe that things are worse than ever. As a whole (there are exceptions) things seems to be stabilizing if not improving.

 

[Marionnette]

My eighteen year old son hit the stores bright and early on black friday. He said he went more for the entertainment than to buy anything. By the afternoon when he went out again to hit the gym at the mall, he said that the crowds had died down considerably. I shopped online for a few gifts but never went out. I will be spending more than I did last year but it will still be much less than we used to spend on Christmas. Income is down nearly ten per cent from two years ago and I cant justify indulging like that right now. Not with two kids in college and one getting his drivers licence soon. I would be willing to bet that many of the enthusiastic black friday shoppers are now finished shopping for the season. That's not what retailers want to see happen.