Doorbuster savings! Huge markdowns! Giant profits! This is the hype of Black Friday and, increasingly, Thanksgiving shopping. It's not the reality, though, however much the retail industry buys its own hype.
For stores, Thanksgiving may be a real waste:
A tiny camera hidden at the front door of over 1,000 retailers to count who comes and goes agrees. Last year, data from these ShopperTrak devices showed there was about the same number of shoppers going into stores on Thanksgiving as a normal Thursday in November, said company founder Bill Martin.
"They're getting sales on Thursday at the sacrifice of Friday, Saturday or Sunday," said Martin.
Because of the deals they have to offer to induce shoppers and because of overhead costs, "they're not making a lot of money as a result," he said.
What about Black Friday itself? Well, legend has it that this is the biggest sales day of the year for retailers.
Emphasis on "legend." Consumer science and retailing expert Richard Feinberg told Marketplace that, as of 2012:
"It has not been the busiest shopping day of the year for many years. It is certainly busy. It is usually in the top five of revenue days, but it hasn't been the top revenue day in quite a long time. Usually that day occurs on the Saturday before Christmas," says Feinberg.
Black Friday is also rife with myth and legend when it comes to what consumers are getting. Sure, stores may offer a few headline-grabbing discounts that a handful of people will get if they're first through the door, but beyond that, the sales typically
aren't anything special:
"It's a big weekend for retail in general," Dan Butler, senior analyst for the National Retail Federation, told Racked. "But there are some retailers, like Macy's for example, that might have a one-day sale two weeks earlier that's bigger for them as a company."
Take, for example, Gap's Black Friday sales strategy. Last year, Gap offered 40% off consumer purchases that entire weekend. Right before Christmas, the same deal cropped up again and in January, merchandise was marked up to 50% off.
And so on. So if you enjoy throwing elbows at the mall, Black Friday might be for you. Just don't think you're saving an especially large amount of money or participating in the biggest retail day of the year.