NEW YORK AP — Retailers are expected to begin the holiday shopping season Friday with bigger crowds than last year in a closer step toward normalcy. The fallout from the pandemic continues to weigh on businesses and shoppers minds.
Customers are returning to stores and splurging on all types of items because of solid hiring, healthy pay gains and substantial savings. The spike has resulted in limited selection across the board as suppliers and retailers have been caught flat-footed.
The inflation continues to creep, as shipping containers and truckers are short of delivery. The labor shortage that makes it harder for businesses to respond to customers makes it harder for businesses to respond to customers, which could make for a less festive mood.
The shelves were stocked and shoppers were steadily streaming in at 6: 30 am, a half-hour after the doors opened at Macy's M, Herald Square store in Manhattan.
Aniva Pawlowski went to Macy's just ahead of the 6 a.m. opening with plans to buy shoes and coats. Shopping on Thanksgiving Day was a family tradition, but she stayed home last year and just shopped online. Worries about shortages drove the New Yorker to shop in person, and she plans to spend around $1,000 on holiday shopping, similar to years past, even though she is concerned about rising costs for gas and food.
She said everything is expensive.
On Black Friday this year, shoppers are expected to pay between 5% and 17% more for toys, clothing, appliances, TVs and other purchases, as well as the biggest price increases on TVs, according to Aurelien Duthoit, senior sector advisor at Allianz Research. That is because whatever discounts are available will be applied to goods that already cost more.
Neil Saunders, GlobalData Retail's managing director, said it was going to be a messy holiday season. It will be a bit frustrating for retailers, consumers and workers. We are going to see long lines. We are going to see messier stores. We are going to see delays as you collect online orders. Big retailers have been preparing for the holiday season and trying to find workarounds to supply chain hold-ups. Some of the biggest U.S. retailers are rerouting goods to less congested ports, even chartering their own vessels.
We are deep and we are ready," said Jeff Gennette, Macy's CEO, Jeff Gennette, told The Associated Press that inventory levels are up 20% compared to last year. Black Friday has a strong hold on Americans' imaginations as a day of crazed shopping, but it has lost its importance over the last decade, as stores opened on Thanksgiving and shopping shifted to Amazon and other online retailers. Advertising Black Friday sales on more and more days diluted the importance of the day.
As early as October retailers were forced to close stores on Thanksgiving Day and push discounts on their websites because of the pandemic. There are deals in stores as well this year, and that is continuing this year.
Some experts believe that Black Friday will be the busiest shopping day this year.
Crowds at Macy's were higher in the first few hours of their 6 a.m. opening compared to last year, while online sales were strong, CEO Gennette said.
Carol Claridge of Bourne, England, has been coming to New York for Thanksgiving-week shopping for 15 years, but skipped it last year because of the Pandemic. The U.S. opened to travelers from the U.K. earlier in November when it lifted travel bans on pandemic travel.
Claridge, who was looking at beauty gift sets on the first floor of Macy's, said they had to wait a long time to do this. We are picking up anything that we like to see. We call it our annual shopping outing. According to the Mastercard SpendingPulse, the US retail sales, excluding auto and gas, are expected to increase 10% from last year and 12% from the 2019 holiday season. Sales on Black Friday are expected to surge 20% from a year ago, as store traffic comes back.
Online shopping is huge, and sales online are expected to increase 7% for the week after the massive 46% gain a year ago, when many shoppers stayed home, according to Mastercard. According to Adobe Digital Economy Index, online sales should increase by 10% from a year ago, compared with a 33% increase last year.
For the November and December period, the National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, predicts that sales will increase between 8.5% and 10.5%. In 2020 holiday sales increased by 8% when shoppers were locked down during the early part of the epidemic, spending their money on pajamas and home goods.