I might be re-stating the obvious, but retail sales potential is getting bleaker and bleaker, IMHO.
In my annual ritual of visiting stores on Black Friday, my initial impression is that the 2008 version should be renamed Black and Blue Friday. I stopped by a bunch of stores this morning to check out the foot traffic. Best Buy, HomeGoods, TJ Max, Road Runner Sports, Golfsmith, Circuit City, Office Depot all seemed slow. The sales associates confirmed my suspision.
While 42-50″ HD TVs were ‘flying off the shelves’ at Best Buy, that might only have been because of the steep discounts Best Buy is offering. In the last couple years, I remember seeing at least a couple ‘must have’ products out of stock at every store…didn’t seem to be the case this year. At Golfsmith and Road Runner Sports, sales clerks were twiddling their thumbs. HomeGoods & TJ Max felt slower than they would on a normal day in June.
This is obviously just one view after a couple hours at 2 shopping centers, but I will not be surprised if we see additional downward revisions in the next week. And yes, soon all reporters will transition to talking about the amazing sales/deals/promos for Cyber Monday, but I don’t think that’s going to stem the carnage for any retailer.
[...] Like last year, I visited 2 Best Buys, HomeGoods/TJX, Golfsmith, GameStop, REI, Road Runner Sports, Gap, Banana Republic, Macy’s, and a couple other stores throughout the bay area. This is just about the same trip I made last year. Started in San Francisco @ 5am (Best Buy), made my way down to San Carlos by 8am (Best Buy, HomeGoods, TJX, Golfsmith, GameStop, REI, Road Runner Sports), and ended up in Palo Alto at the Stanford Shopping Center (Gap, Banana Republic, Macy’s). [...]