Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Black Friday sales advanced 0.5 percent from a year earlier as discounts on televisions, toys and computers drew budget-conscious crowds across the U.S., according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp.
We Don't Know How Black Friday Sales Were Yet | The Big Picture
Today, the WSJ ran this patently incorrect headline (which many TV stations dutifully (mis)reported: Black Friday Spending Rose Slightly Preliminary sales data showed shoppers spent $10.66 billion on Black Friday. That's 0.5% more than last year. The figures were compiled by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores That's simply wrong. We don't have a clue yet as to how Black Friday sales were. Not even a remotely wild guess. What the WSJ should have written were words to the effect of: "An analysis of mall foot traffic suggests that Black Friday saw a slight increase in shoppers. Since we did not analyze actual sales, or even credit card transaction, we actually have no idea how sales did. ShopperTrak's guessed that sales might have been up as much as a half a percentage, but that's just spitballing it. Every year, various groups -- NPD, Retail Federation, Shopper Track, and others -- release this weak ass data that is almost never correct. And each year, the press laps it up like manna from heaven.
Black Friday Spending Rose Slightly Preliminary sales data showed shoppers spent $10.66 billion on Black Friday. That's 0.5% more than last year. The figures were compiled by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores
Black Friday Spending Rose Slightly
Preliminary sales data showed shoppers spent $10.66 billion on Black Friday. That's 0.5% more than last year. The figures were compiled by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores
That's simply wrong. We don't have a clue yet as to how Black Friday sales were. Not even a remotely wild guess.
What the WSJ should have written were words to the effect of:
"An analysis of mall foot traffic suggests that Black Friday saw a slight increase in shoppers. Since we did not analyze actual sales, or even credit card transaction, we actually have no idea how sales did. ShopperTrak's guessed that sales might have been up as much as a half a percentage, but that's just spitballing it.
Every year, various groups -- NPD, Retail Federation, Shopper Track, and others -- release this weak ass data that is almost never correct. And each year, the press laps it up like manna from heaven.
This leads to a broad overestimation of US economic strength in the press because first impressions weigh heavier.
But I might be wrong!
