Popfy - Popfy Skribbles - Holiday Shopping Season 2013

Skribbles on the 2013 Holiday Shopping Season...

Give it away and they will come. Well sort of. Quoting the New York Times produced DealBook financial news service:

Thanksgiving week is one of the biggest and busiest weeks of the year for retailers. More than 139 million people shopped from Thursday through Sunday of Thanksgiving week last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).In the past, the all-important holiday shopping season began on Black Friday, the Super Bowl of retail that falls on the day after Thanksgiving. This year however, major retailers have thrown in a new twist by announcing earlier opening times and bigger sales on Thanksgiving Day to gain a leg up on the competition and the shortened holiday season.

Consumers are expected to storm stores throughout the weekend on the hunt for sweet promotions. Industry analysts or, people in the know, say that the first four days of the holiday shopping season are expected to draw about 140 million shoppers, 7 million fewer than last year. The NRF also says that spending will be up 3.9% to $602.1 billi this year. This number may prove to be wishful thinking as most people are planning on holding on tight to their dough and are on the lookout for DEALS! You can blame the economy for this behavior since most people don’t have confidence in its direction and jobs are still relatively scarce.

The holiday shopping season is very important to a retailer. It represents as much as 20-40% of their annual retail sales. The shopping season is also critical to the overall health of the economy since consumer spending makes up approximately 70% of our country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Here is a list of the major retailers that plan to kick-off the all-important shopping season on Thanksgiving Day and their respective opening times:

Best Buy ($BBY): 6 p.m.
Kohl’s ($KSS): 8 p.m.
JC Penney ($JCP): 8 p.m.
Macy’s ($M): 8 p.m.
Toys “R” Us: 5 p.m.
Walmart ($WMT): 6 p.m.