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Black Friday Packaged-Media Consumption Dips

28 Nov, 2016 By: Erik Gruenwedel



Underscoring changing consumer trends in home entertainment consumption, 28% of shoppers bought a DVD, music CD or video game over the Thanksgiving/Black Friday retail weekend, which was down from 32% during the previous-year period and 34% in 2014, according to new from the National Retail Federation.

The trade group estimated 155 million people shopped over the weekend, which was up from 151 million last year, according to a survey of 4,330 respondents Nov. 25–26.

Other items purchased over the weekend included clothing or clothing accessories (50%), toys (32%), electronics (30%) and gift cards (20%).

The survey found that of those who shopped in stores, 51% shopped at department stores, 34% at discount stores, 32% at electronics stores, 28% at clothing or accessories stores, and 25% at grocery/supermarket stores.

Average spending per person totaled $289.19, down from $299.60 last year. An average of $214.13 specifically went toward gifts, or 74% of total purchases.

Retailers such Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Costco again lined store aisles over the weekend with point-of-purchase displays stocked with heavily discounted movie titles.

“Over one-third of shoppers said 100% of their purchases were on sale,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.

Millennials (ages 18–34) drove the increase in shopping during Thanksgiving Weekend. Eight in 10 shopped over the weekend, of which 25- to 34-year-olds shopped the most in store (56%) and online (62%).

Michael Pachter, media analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, attributed slow pre-Black Friday video game sales to consumer willingness to wait for deals.

“If they wanted Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and they also knew that the game would be discounted by $20 within a matter of weeks, it would make sense for a meaningful percentage of those gamers to temporarily postpone their purchase. We believe that the above scenario held true for many other notable titles, including Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2,” Pachter wrote in a Nov. 28 .
 


About the Author: Erik Gruenwedel


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