Eat, Drink, then go Shopping?

Whitney Beck Nate Jones Ty Olsen Ryan Mazzola

11:59 November 23rd

 Where will you be?

Black Friday

 Named for:  Being in the Black  Heavy Traffic  1975 Philidelphia; Army Navy Game  Lead Loss items  Grey Marketing  Medic!?!?

Kick-Starting Sales

 ‘Black Friday’ – Day after Thanksgiving -Official start to holiday shopping -Shopping frenzy  Accounts for 25-40% annual sales Crucial time of year for retailers

Kick-Starting Sales

 Most stores host events -Huge sales -Open earlier; Close later  Some malls “Midnight Madness” -Open at midnight -Proven to boost sales over this 3-day weekend

Why The Struggle?

 Earlier openings  Capture those first sales as soon as possible  Better Sales  The less your leader products cost, the better chance of drawing the ‘serious crowd’.  Intense Advertising  Trying to break through the competitive ‘clutter’ and become a

must go

in consumers minds.

Why the Panic?

 Concern shoppers will run out of money early  Decreased discretionary income  No confidence in the market  Housing slump  Dow Jones down nearly 8% in last month  Nasdaq has also slumped 10% in last two weeks

Christmas Spending

 National Retail Federation predicts 4% growth  Loeb & Associates – 3 – 3.5%  America’s Research Group – 2%

Reasons for Slow Growth

 Warm October  No must have items  High gas prices  Bad housing market  Consumers will wait for merchandise to go on sale  Worst Christmas Season in 5 years

Internet Retailing

 21% increase in online sales from last year  Internet Retailers are offering:  Free shipping  Gift wrap  Web-only deals  Analysts suggest starting early, pushing Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Sources

       http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSN09323538 20071109?pageNumber=1&sp=true http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119491130661590575.ht

ml?mod=googlenews_wsj http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/338869_retailsal es09.html

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/11/08/retail-holiday forecast-markets-equity-cx_tr_1108markets44.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping% 29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVvEChXulSs http://moneycentral.msn.com