The holidays are approaching which means family time, lots of food and presents!!! But the economy is still struggling and this got me thinking, how are people going to balance needs and wants, and will there actually be any presents under the tree? A recent article in Advertising Age comments on this, and the chaos of Black Friday, which is just around the corner.
According to the article, consumers are starting their shopping early. Google research has shown that Black Friday searches have started two weeks earlier than last year, and terms such as "early Black Friday sales" are popular. This suggests that consumers are shopping around for the best deals before making big purchase decisions.
According to the article, research released last week shows that 39% of consumers are planning on spending less during the holidays than last year. Retail stores need to get creative in finding ways for consumers to spend spend spend! Their response: layaway. Check out the Sears website and you’ll see and option for layway. Best Buy and Kmart are doing it too. According to the article, Walmart’s missing out because it got rid of layaway two years ago. I think these large corporations are smart in providing this option. It can be hard to make a decision knowing that a big chunk of money will be gone and will take a lot of working hours to get back.
Overall, consumers are being smarter this year. They’re using lists, which means no more impulse buying. By researching ahead of time, they are finding the best deals. They’re paying with cash and using layaway. They’re being cautious in their spending habits. It may not be the best thing for the economy right now, but I think it’s safe to say that these are some life skills that some consumers never had before, but benefit from now. So maybe an economic crisis isn’t too bad after all if some of us really learned the value of a dollar.
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