Here are some Black Friday data points to enlighten (and perhaps annoy) shoppers while they’re waiting in line for stores to open up, wondering whether prices will be cheaper next week, or arguing with a driver in the parking lot after getting into a car accident:
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This Is Your Brain on Black Friday Shopping
Who among us hasn’t come back from a shopping excursion, looked over the just-purchased haul, and wondered, What was I thinking? Often, our shopping decisions aren’t the result of a completely logical thought process, but are instead affected by what we smell, hear, and touch, and what people around us are doing inside the store.
Restaurants at Car Dealerships? Jungle Gyms and Water Parks at Malls? New Reasons to Go Shopping
Businesses will go to great, and sometimes unusual, lengths in order to entice customers into going shopping. With the goal of becoming a “destination,” rather than just another place to shop, malls and car dealerships are getting creative. They’re installing new features and additions in order to woo consumers and set themselves apart …
Why JCPenney’s ‘No More Coupons’ Experiment Is Failing
The new JCPenney sounds so appealing on paper. Earlier this year, the retailer announced that “fake prices”—inflated big time to make markdowns seem more tempting—would disappear, to be replaced with a “fair and square” …
Big Mall Makeover: Using Empty Malls for Farms, Housing, Wedding Receptions
In recent years, consumers have been buying more and more goods from outlet malls, dollar stores and online retailers. By no small coincidence, over the same time period traditional shopping malls have suffered, and now have the highest vacancy rates in 20 years. All those empty stores—and sometimes, entirely empty malls—have …
New Holiday Tradition: Buying Yourself a Gift
Gift exchanges are so inefficient. Unless everyone’s picked out presents via gift registry, there’s a decent chance someone will receive an unwanted gift—which amounts to a waste of time and money. And if everyone’s picked out …
Retail Shoppers: 3 Minutes to Check-out, Or I’m Out of Here!
Long lines are bad for business. An especially long line at a store’s checkout area can scare off some customers from making a purchase, or just leave the shopper aggravated—and less likely to come back. Also, the longer the …
Holiday Shopping: Will Cyber Monday Outshine Black Friday?
Black Friday was no bust. Retail sales turned out to be far stronger than predicted, rising by nearly 7% compared with last year’s day-after-Thanksgiving shopping bonanza. Finishing off the holiday weekend that’s all about consumption—first, in terms of turkey, and later on, shopping—is the e-commerce spectacular, Cyber Monday. …
Think Black Friday Has the Cheapest Prices? Think Again
The only rational explanations for lining up outside the mall before the sun rises and putting up with monster crowds to go shopping on Black Friday are: 1) You just love the crazed, festival-like atmosphere; and/or 2) you assume …
Increasingly, Black Friday Is a Day to Stay Home, Not Hit the Mall
The day after Thanksgiving has become the official kickoff for the holiday shopping season. It’s also become a day to exhibit nonsensical consumer behavior, such as waiting outside for hours in the freezing cold at stores that …
Absurd or Brilliant? How to Save Money, and Even Make a Little, As You Shop
Whenever a store has a sale, it points out how much the shopper would “save” by purchasing the discounted merchandise. This is ridiculous, of course. If the item is something you wouldn’t have otherwise purchased, you’re …
The Mall as the ‘Better Mouse Trap’
The goal of retailers and mall designers is to get consumers inside and keep them there indefinitely—to increase the chances that shoppers will buy more and more “cheese,” so to speak.
