- Black Friday shopping starts early for NFM
- Holiday shoppers are starting earlier
- Early shoppers and NFM Store Director share their thoughts
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Maybe there's something to shopping early and stressing less. Spirits sure seem bright.
“We're gonna wait till dinner and go have lunch. Would you like to join us? Sure!”
Ed and Mary Ann are from Tekamah and know what they're looking for.
“Well, I told him what I wanted for Christmas. So, he's looking for a little speaker and we've found a lot of 'em, you know. But I said, 'You can wrap it under the tree and I won't tell all the kids that I know what it is.”
Black Friday isn't just about the day after Thanksgiving as more stores roll out deals early.
Including NFM, I'm Mary Nelson in your neighborhood near Aksarben at the store on South 72nd Street. And we'll get back to here, but I want to start with what Fiserv discovered.
The company analyzed payments data and consumer spending in Omaha and told us, yes, holiday spending is happening earlier like in October. So more activity then — could mean softer numbers now and into December.
But two other things: As personal savings rates have declined; Fiserv says more of us will use our credit cards instead of debit cards or cash. And spending on durable goods like furniture and TVs, along with other high-ticket items is already showing its best performance since 2020. And that's when pandemic stimulus payments factored in.
So that's the survey, let's shift to feeling on the ground.
"Surprisingly, not everybody has a giant TV yet. But people are buying big TVs. We're also selling a lot of appliances. And the manufacturers have gone crazy with their prices by lowering them, and they're really trying to move some inventory at the end of the year."
“But I want customers to have a good experience getting the things for the people that they love... and their in-laws. (Are you saying you don't love your in-laws?) I love my in-laws. They live in a different city.”
We're talking about now as being early. But if we go back to the end of October, Google reports that 50% of Americans had started shopping and an average of 29% were done.
Those people are in the "deliberate" set — as analysts see it.
Google describes people like Ed and Mary Ann - and others shopping this month - as informed "deal-seekers".
If you wait till December, you're "determined" because it's crunch time.
Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.
Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.
