ShortFormBlogcompetitive shopping Archives

» Too many deals? Best Buy, which has become shorthand for “company that throws all its chips in on Black Friday,” lost its bet on this year’s Black Friday, as its third-quarter results (which include the waffle-iron-rioting-day) showed major weaknesses, as discounts got people into the stores but failed to get them to actually work as loss-leaders. “They were more promotional and that doesn’t bode well for the holiday season, which is going to be very, very intense,” noted Barclays Capital analyst Alan Rifkin.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

$45B the amount spent during Black Friday weekend last year; that’s a 16 percent jump, for those playing at home
226M number of shoppers over Black Friday weekend; that’s also a huge leap from 2010, and a record number
$398 the amount spent per customer on Black Friday weekend — a jump of more than $40 from 2010 source

» A big win for retail, but for humanity … eh. The heavy spending this year came with a number of downsides, most notably in the form of a series of customers-acting-crazy moments. We covered a few of these over the weekend, including an overzealous pepper sprayer and a riot over $2 waffle irons. Sure, the economy needs a serious kick in the pants, but we hope we can get said kick in the pants while being nice to our fellow human beings. Fortunately, tomorrow is Cyber Monday, where the problems with physical shopping don’t exist. Unless you know a way to shut off your neighbor’s internet. In which case you’re evil and we don’t like you anymore.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

I heard screaming and I heard yelling. Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.
Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California Wal-Mart customer Matthew Lopez • Describing what happened after another customer, who authorities say was “competitive shopping,” pepper sprayed 20 people (including children!) in an attempt to beat everyone else at getting stuff. Considering, you know, this incident and this incident, the usage of pepper spray seems incredibly ironic. Authorities are looking for the person who sprayed her fellow shoppers in efforts to buy a new Xbox 360 or something similar. Humanity sucks sometimes. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2011 11:08