Black Friday
/I remember going to my grandma’s house every year on Thanksgiving and helping family sift through newspaper advertisements to plan out their Black Friday shopping bonanza. Slowly, things changed when retailers started opening earlier and earlier to beat each other to the punch. Then, online retailers snuck in Cyber Monday in case you couldn’t make all the doorbusters. Now, shopping is hardly a topic at Thanksgiving since seasonal sales start as early as October and extend well beyond Black Friday.
Although our behaviors have changed, the holiday season is still a good indicator of consumer confidence. Deloitte surveys shoppers annually about their holiday spending, and for 2023, they found:
The average expected spend is $1,652, the first substantial increase since 2019
95% of people plan to shop for the holidays versus 92% in 2022 and 88% in 2021
74% of shoppers are expecting higher prices this season
The amount of time people expect to spend shopping for the holidays is down to 5.8 weeks versus 7.4 weeks in 2019
66% of shoppers plan to take advantage of specific holiday events, like Black Friday, versus 49% in 2022
This survey is just one piece of information, but it seems to show that people are generally comfortable enough with their financial situation to loosen their purse strings a bit for the first time since 2019. However, everyone is hoping to get through their holiday shopping quickly and still feel like they spent wisely. The days of crazy doorbusters may be over, but it is still important to plan out purchases and set an appropriate budget for holiday spending. The holiday season can be the greatest season of all, and this year it seems to be a priority again despite looming apprehension about the economy.
- Kyle McCune, CFP®, Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors
