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Thanksgiving shopping was a 'bust'
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Thanksgiving Day shopping was a "bust" this year, according to analysts at SunTrust.
In a note to clients on Friday, SunTrust provided an update on its pre-Black Friday "channel checks" — or in-person scan of activity at stores — at malls and other retail outlets in New England, the New York metro area, and the southeastern parts of the country.
Overall, the team thought Thanksgiving Day shopping — a trend that took hold a few years ago when stores stopped waiting until Black Friday to open — was a "bust."
Here's SunTrust:
We believe Thanksgiving shopping was a bust. We note that traffic seemed below last year both on- and off-mall. Members of our team who went to the malls first had no problem finding parking or navigating stores. Crowds were tame and, with some exceptions there seemed to be more browsing than buying and less items purchased. We heard many people discussing that deals were not that compelling compared to years past. Interestingly, many retailers closed at midnight- which contributed to a sharp decline in traffic shortly thereafter. Off-mall, members of our team visited Walmart and Target for the openings and had no problem finding parking. Customers at both were focused on electronics. Lines, even early, were about half of what they were last year and quickly dissipated. The only off-mall big box retailer we visited with consistently long lines and customers making multiple item purchases was Kohl's — where buys were focused on deals not available online.
And so at least in the view of SunTrust's team, it sounds as if much of the traffic at the mall and otherwise came from people who got bored sitting around with their relatives eating turkey and watching football and needed to get out of the house.
In its note, SunTrust said the biggest surprise was the decline in traffic from last year.
Additionally, the firm noticed a decline in the magnitude of discounts it found at stores, which it said indicated that retail management teams saw the holiday-sales season as a "marathon not a sprint."
The firm said it was surprised by the decision of numerous retailers to not open at all on Thanksgiving and that some shoppers were buying outerwear, an item most observers think consumers would have already purchased.
As for early winners and losers by brand, the SunTrust's team saw solid traffic at American Eagle, Old Navy, and Abercrombie & Fitch. The losers were Gap (which owns Old Navy), Zumiez, and New York & Company.
As for Black Friday, retailers still have about 15 hours to go, but the early read is that it seems as if people are shopping either online or not at all.
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