Personal spending down for Black Friday
Local retailers find electronics to be most popular
Sarah Jean Bresnahan/Campus Editor
Issue date: 11/30/09 Section: News
Although the recession may be over, Santa could still have a light load to carry this Christmas.
Black Friday has come and gone, and U.S. consumers spent significantly less per person this year.
According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday weekend spending was down 8 percent per person.
While the NRF reports that spending for Black Friday weekend rose 0.5 percent to $41.2 billion, it estimates that the 2009 overall holiday sales will be down 1 percent this year, making an assumed $437.60 billion. Last year's amounted to $441.97 billion.
Local stores, like Family Video on Lincoln Avenue, did not see much of a difference in sales this weekend.
"We were really busy, but we didn't notice any difference from last year," said Brook Sloat, the assistant manager at Family Video.
Drawing the 195 million shoppers to stores and Web sites was the bargains.
Electronics and apparel would have the greatest bargains this year, according to CNNMoney.com.
Area retailers found this to be true in their most-sold items over the weekend.
A representative from the Wal-Mart on Lincoln Avenue said the most popular item on Friday was the 32-inch Emerson LCD HDTV.
An employee at the RadioShack in the Cross County Mall in Mattoon said its biggest sellers this weekend were GPS units and laptops.
Sarah Jean Bresnahan can be reached at 581-7942 or dencampusdesk@gmail.com.
Black Friday has come and gone, and U.S. consumers spent significantly less per person this year.
According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday weekend spending was down 8 percent per person.
While the NRF reports that spending for Black Friday weekend rose 0.5 percent to $41.2 billion, it estimates that the 2009 overall holiday sales will be down 1 percent this year, making an assumed $437.60 billion. Last year's amounted to $441.97 billion.
Local stores, like Family Video on Lincoln Avenue, did not see much of a difference in sales this weekend.
"We were really busy, but we didn't notice any difference from last year," said Brook Sloat, the assistant manager at Family Video.
Drawing the 195 million shoppers to stores and Web sites was the bargains.
Electronics and apparel would have the greatest bargains this year, according to CNNMoney.com.
Area retailers found this to be true in their most-sold items over the weekend.
A representative from the Wal-Mart on Lincoln Avenue said the most popular item on Friday was the 32-inch Emerson LCD HDTV.
An employee at the RadioShack in the Cross County Mall in Mattoon said its biggest sellers this weekend were GPS units and laptops.
Sarah Jean Bresnahan can be reached at 581-7942 or dencampusdesk@gmail.com.
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