Black Friday A Bust as Record Inflation Leaves Americans Buying Less
In this Aug. 11, 2019 file photo, U.S. currency and credit cards sit on a table at a restaurant in New Orleans.
A much anticipated return to in-person Black Friday shopping in the US drew significantly fewer customers than expected, it’s being reported. Crowded stores “appeared to be an exception” in the US, an American news outlet wrote on Friday, as deeply diminished purchasing power left shoppers’ hopes for loading up on discounted presents dashed.Mainstream media outlets reported a glum mood among those who did turn out. “I am shopping less,” one woman told an American news outlet. “The money is not going as far as last year,” another reportedly said.Consumers are responding to the bleak economic outlook by cutting back this year, with preliminary data showing E-commerce spending on Thanksgiving Day rose just 2.9% – nowhere near matching the eye-watering 8% inflation rate the US hit in October.The dismal Black Friday showing signals that record inflation, which Biden administration officials acknowledged in June was at least partly caused by their sanctions against Russia, is hitting average Americans hard. At 60%, the number of shoppers who say the dire economic outlook is affecting their holiday plans hit its highest level since 2008’s Great Recession, per the National Retail Federation.Other data shows a clear class divide among those pinching pennies and those splurging this year – according to an American news source, while 56% of households bringing in over $100,000 said they’re worried about inflation’s impact on their spending power, a full 78% percent of households earning less than $50,000 report being concerned.All this comes as a report from the Federal Reserve of New York found that credit card balances jumped 15% in the third quarter of 2022 – the biggest increase year-over-year in over two decades.The situation for retailers was further complicated as Amazon workers in at least 40 countries decided to strike or engage in other labor actions on Black Friday in an effort to secure better pay and improve conditions on the job.Whether or not they succeed, at the end of the day, there’s little retail outlets can do to remedy the broader macroeconomic situation. As Salesforce VP Rob Garf reportedly told an American news source, “people are just plainly buying less products because their dollar isn’t going as far as it used to.”
