Black Friday = New Guitar (and apparently a lot of other stuff...)

UPDATED WITH CONSUMER STATISTICS ON DEC. 7, 2008

Black Friday is the most intense shopping day of the year. Though it may be full of greed and overconsumption, everyone hits the mall. Some stores open as early as 3am on the day after Thanksgiving. And, most can count on people sleeping outside the door before opening. But this year, with the economic crisis and all, will Black Friday fall flat?
I found myself as one of these shoppers. At 8am, I was already in my car and on the 8 East freeway towards east San Diego. My destination? Guitar Center. Lucky for me, Christmas came early as I grabbed a new Fender American Standard Strat. It’s white on black – but I replaced the pick guard with black. It plays beautifully. And man, is it nice to go shopping – especially when everything is 15% off. It would seem that I wasn't the only one racking in the great deals this weekend.
Based on the economic crisis, I assumed that consumers will halt spending – regardless of the deals offered by Black Friday. And it seems only rational. When the economy enters recession, spending slows. It is natural – less money in the bank means less money spent at the store. Yet, Black Friday, and the weekend that follows it, is not a normal shopping day. It is THE shopping day. But my optimism can only stretch so far.
Though, as I entered Guitar Center at 8:20am on Friday, my assumption lost ground. The store was packed head to toe with guitars. Less was I surprised by the quantity of guitars than by the number of people waiting at the register this early in the morning. Apparently 15% is enough of a discount to draw in the crowds. No wonder I had to park three blocks away.
After leaving the store and making it home past the mall traffic, I realized that this weekend was now an American tradition. Regardless of the economy, you can expect Americans to show up for the great holiday shop-a-thon.

As weekend spending totaled over $41 billion, it would seem that I was not the only winner. Statistics show that sales rose 1.9% on Friday and Saturday combined – surprising most. According to the 2008 National Retail Federation survey, over 172 million shoppers went shopping online or in stores during Black Friday. This is an astounding 25 million more people than last year. And, shoppers spent 7.2% more money on items – totaling an average of $372 this weekend.
The interesting note is that Wall Street didn’t do as hoped. Wal-Mart went down 1.4%, Target was down 3.9% and Best Buy lost 1.8%. But, overall, the DOW finished up 102 points (about 1.2%). What is key, though, is that over four trading sessions, it was up about 9%.
All in all, for consumers and the markets alike, it was a green day for our economy. Hopefully it will continue this good trend, but these hopes do rest in the clouds. As we now descend from the largest shopping day of the year, let us hope that Americans did not buy things that they couldn’t afford. Otherwise this crisis may just get worse.