Opening Day for Shoppers Shows Divide

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/business/black-friday-sales-show-divide-between-shoppers.html?_r=1

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, will always be one of the biggest shopping days of the year for stores. It is a day where consumers on a budget feel as though they get good savings and the wealthy don’t care what they pay. Chain stores, like Best Buy and Kohl’s slash prices to attract customers in to purchase their merchandise. High end stores like Neiman Marcus feel that they don’t have to do anything to attract customers. Their consumers will buy anything, regardless of the price.

Teamwork will have to take place between the consumer and the economy. The economy feeds off consumer purchases. So if stores have sales to attract the consumer, they will also purchase things that are not on sale, helping the store and thus stimulating the economy. Without the consumer willing to go out and purchase sales, the economy would stay stagnate. Many people are saying that sales from this Black Friday will be up 3 percent from last year with holiday sales growing 5.2 percent. Consumers are also showing strong spending patterns this year. This has to do with the economy being better from last year. Teamwork between the economy and the consumers is every strong and dependent on each other. Discount and chain stores will offer the best deals because they are the ones who feed off the teamwork of the consumers to increase their revenue. Fancy, high end stores, will have the rich buying at any time, regardless of the economy.

What do you think classmates - Is Black Friday important for our economy? Do you think that consumers and the economy teamwork together or is it not that important for there to be a good relationship there? What are some other big days of the economy that the consumer helps stimulate? Did you work with the economy and go shopping on Black Friday?

-Kristi Rudin