Friday Fun Facts About “Black Friday”

Tom EgelhoffPublished: November 28, 2014

FORT WORTH, TX - NOVEMBER 27: Shoppers Jeri Hull (L) and Karen Brashear (R) wait in line while shopping at Toys'R'Us during the Black Friday sales event on November 27, 2009 in Fort Worth, Texas. Toys'R'Us stores nationwide opened at midnight Thursday, November 26, providing shoppers access to its Black Friday deals five hours earlier than ever before. According to the National Retail Federation, a trade organization, as many as 134 million people, 4.7% more than last year, will shop this Friday, Saturday or Sunday. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

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My wife and I have a yearly tradition. We hit the stores and malls on Black Friday. We don’t get up in the middle of the night to get the many advertised bargains; we just enjoy getting in the holiday spirit.

I don’t know about you but watching two middle aged women fighting over the last sale item says Merry Christmas to me.

Here are a few fun facts about this chaotic day.

Black Friday Fun Facts from 2013

Shop with a plan. MasterCard Advisors suggest that seventy percent of Black Friday purchases were made in the first two stores shoppers visited in 2013.
The big online winners generating the most sales on Black Friday in 2013 were Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, and Walmart.
Shoppertrack reported that in-store traffic was down 11% and sales were down 13% in 2013 from the previous year. This could be do to more online shopping.
Overall, shopper numbers on Black Friday 2013 increased 2.9 percent over the previous year.
Seventy-seven percent of shoppers had done some shopping before Black Friday.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Combined In 2013

Shoppers spent $12.3 billion dollars on Thanksgiving and Black Friday combined in 2013.
According to ShopperTrak there were 1.07 billion retail store visits by shoppers. A 2.3 percent increase over the previous year for the two days.
Due to winter storms in 2013, the Northeastern part of the country saw a decline is sales of seven percent and a decline in store traffic of 5 percent.
Total spending for the combined two days was up 8 percent over 2012.

Some Final Thoughts

Many small local retailers rely on the Christmas shopping season to make a yearly profit. I would encourage all of us to shop local as much as possible.

The bulk of money spent here creates local jobs and the money turns over approximately seven times as it circulates through our local economy.

Happy Shopping Everyone!