Shopping habits over Thanksgiving weekend are changing, survey says
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Thanksgiving weekend used to kick off the holiday shopping season with big sales on Black Friday.
But as KDKA-TV money editor Jon Delano reports, peoples' shopping habits have changed a great deal in the last decade.
Remember the old days? Well, not that long ago when hundreds would line up very early on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving to rush into some retail store for highly discounted products to kick off their Christmas shopping. It's not so true today.
"This has become maybe more of the midpoint of the holiday season, not the kickoff that it used to be. A lot of people started way back in October this year. That's when a lot of the best deals began," says Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at bankrate.com, which conducts surveys of shoppers.
Rossman says 80 percent of consumers will buy something over this weekend, but Black Friday now ranks third for shopping.
"Sixty-six percent of holiday shoppers will buy something on Cyber Monday. That's followed pretty closely by Small Business Saturday at 59 percent and Black Friday at 56. I was surprised that Black Friday was the least popular of the three," says Rossman.
The brief experiment of major chains opening on Thanksgiving Day, forcing employees to work on a family holiday, has, thankfully, disappeared with only some grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations and restaurants open on Thursday.
"That has been a big change in recent years, and that started before the pandemic with a bit of a backlash," Rossman said.
"Remember for a while a few years ago, Thanksgiving Day almost started to rival Black Friday in terms of in-person deals and door-busters," Rossman added. "That's started to peter out. I feel like that's almost totally done."
As for how far along you are in your holiday shopping, some shoppers in Market Square said Wednesday that they are just getting started. Others are almost done.
"I'm pretty far along in my Christmas shopping because I want to be done by Thanksgiving. So coming here is topping it off for me," says Vicky Mowry of Cranberry.
"Haven't done a whole lot of Christmas shopping. That's a big reason why we're here, to get some ideas for it," says Grace Briggs of Brookline.
Black Friday has changed, first, because covid limited in-person shopping and now inflation is affecting shopping patterns.
"I think the main theme here is inflation, and that incentivized people to start early. There's a feeling among consumers that they want to spend. They want to celebrate the holiday, but they're being thoughtful and they're looking for value and they want to spread out these purchases," says Rossman.
Rossman says many shoppers are more than halfway through their Christmas shopping because stores started their Black Friday sales weeks ago.
Shoppers in Market Square said inflation was a factor this year but good sales and discounts can offset price hikes.
"Money is tight for everybody, so spending a lot of money is hard," says Briggs.
"I'd probably spend a little less than I would in any other year," says Mary Taddonio of Murrysville.
As for overall spending during this Christmas holiday season, Rossman predicts an uptick for retailers but that will be wiped out by higher overall costs.
"Anywhere from 6 to 8 percent above last year, which sounds good except last year was up 14 percent from the prior year, and these stats don't include inflation, and inflation is running towards the high end of that six to eight percent," Rossman said.
In short, consumers will spend more for the same gifts as last year.
But there are two pieces of good news. Supply chain issues are much better than a year ago, and the Black Friday sales that started weeks ago are likely to continue until Christmas.