Stuart Elliott: Digital Offers Ho, Ho, Hope for the Holidays

Such a designation would acknowledge that the annual holidaytime crush and rush to buy stuff is losing steam faster than the second season of HBOamp8217s quotTrue Detectivequot Indeed some early data suggests that sales receipts in stores last Thursday and Friday fell to 122 billion from 136 billion tallied on the same two days in 2014Madison Avenue is worried Results like those could foreshadow a demise for the Christmas goose that laid so many golden eggs for so many retailers for so many years But it actually wouldn39t be so terrible if marketers would stop trying to whip shoppers into a frenzy as the season kicks off After all attitudes about what constitutes bargains as well as where and when to start searching for them are changingFor one thing consumers are finally figuring out that a lot of what passes for quotdoorbustersquot is hype That39s partly because they can so easily and continuously compare prices on websites and apps And it39s partly because the media are helping school them on the real deal so to speakTake for instance an article in the New York Times on Thanksgiving that in print carried the headline quotBlack Friday Bargains Are Fewer Than You Thinkquot and online carried a headline promising to educate readers quotHow to Shop Smart This Holiday Seasonquot An expert interviewed for the article estimated that of about 34000 Black Friday deals on appealing highquality merchandise only 06 percent were truly bargains That39s no typo 06 percent YipesSince the Great Recession ended there also has been a shift in the zeitgeist about unbridled consumerism The quotShop till you dropquot mentality is increasingly perceived as passe Feeding that are backlashes against the unrelenting hype before the holiday sales begin against riots fights and brawls on recent Black Fridays and against decisions by retailers to open their doors on Thanksgiving meaning employees are being called into work on a day that long was a day offLook at all the positive responses to countermoves by chains such as Costco Dillard39s HampampM Marshalls Nordstrom and Staples to close on Thanksgiving not to mention the plaudits heaped upon REI for shutting its stores on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday and asking staff and shoppers in ads and on social media to quotopt outsidequotThere are two other big trends that are having the effect of minimizing the madness of the first few days of holiday shopping to the point where someday Black Friday might be called Gray Friday One is known as Christmas creep as retailers and marketers prime the pump by starting to wheel and deal as early as July They39d rather make the sales when customers are in the mood to buy instead of waiting for the calendar to reach NovemberThe other trend is the increasing popularity of buying virtually through computers tablets and smartphones at any time whether or not a brickandmortar store is open for business Those revenues are counted separately from the sales volumes announced for realworld stores during the first holiday shopping weekend and early estimates indicate that online revenues set a record and rose by doubledigit percentages compared with the same period last year By one count more people shopped online than in person though sales in physical stores dwarfed those in cyberspacePeople who shopped at actual stores ought to tip their hats to those who shopped via devices Virtual sales seemed to have acted as a safety valve reducing the sizes of physical crowds to less scary levels that made bad behavior less likelyI noticed the smaller turnout when I joined the ranks of those who shopped in physical stores on Black Friday It39s something I usually avoid but perhaps I was enticed to join the throngs after being exposed to scores of ads on TV in print and in social media sponsored by everyone from the usual suspects Best Buy Bloomingdale39s Macy39s Old Navy Staples Target Walmart to unlikely purveyors of holiday bargains such as Bass Pro Shops BrisketTown the Central Park Conservancy Chevrolet Ford the Financial Times Food Network Hyundai 2xist Twinings and VerizonTo replace a venerable Sharp microwave oven I bought one from LG that was on sale at Best Buy the price 30 off was no doorbuster I brought it home plugged it in turned it on and heard a noise that sounded just like a jet taking off in a windstormBack went the oven for a refund Back home I plugged the Sharp back in Maybe Best Buy should39ve saved the LG for Sucker SundayThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: Digital Offers Ho, Ho, Hope for the Holidays

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"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Stuart Elliott: Digital Offers Ho, Ho, Hope for the Holidays

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