Black Friday Comes Very Early in 2010

Ordinarily, we expect to see a mass flood of Christmas shoppers making their way to stores and shops across the nation the day after Thanksgiving. Great purchases can be made but customers (and store employees) must put up with over-crowding and people who forgot they were ever told not to shove, pull and take items out of other people's hands. LOL!!! It is usualy not the shopping environment that most of us desire.

This year, many businesses are offering Black Friday prices throughout the season to help those of us who are struggling to even just pay our routine monthly bills letting alone the holiday shopping. It will definitely pay for all of us to keep a steady eye on the paper sale bills that are sent to our regular mail box as well as going online and checking out the sales that our favorite stores are posting there.

A report that I just read maintains that a good portion of the shoppers in the U.S. started their Christmas shopping in July. 18.8% of these shoppers had already completed their shopping in October. An estimated 19% started and some finished their shopping in September. Stores are counting on 40% of shoppers to do their shopping between now and the end of November. Fifty-one percent of American customers want to have all of their gifts purchased, wrapped and sitting under the Christmas tree before December 18th. All in all, 84 percent of our customers will continue to look for even more great bargains all of the way through Christmas Eve. I am sure that some of those shoppers will take advantage of the great prices and save the products for next year's Christmas.

More than a few of the stores will be cutting their prices TREMENDOUSLY so that they can capture as much business as possible. For example, corporate officers managed to get Target's Black Friday sale ad which is supposed to run the day after Thanksgiving to other businesses. According to what was basically stolen from Target, the major discount store is planning to sell various appliances for just $3.00 each. I would assume that Target will be losing a great deal of money on those sales but hope to regain it plus additional monies on other items that customers purchase from the store while there to buy the appliances.

Consumers are expecting to save 8% on all LCD TVs this year.

Fraud will of course be on the rampage also. If you hear of a deal that promises alot of free items if you purchase a certain product, you just might be being hoaxed. Remember the old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".

And, as always, I encourage people to shop at home as much as possible. Our hometown businesses depend on US, you and me!!!

VLE-B