Filed under: Consumer experience, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Best Buy (BBY), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN)

The early reports seem to be that Black Friday was a success; people spent lots of money and sales were up more than 8% over last year. Good news?

Not so fast. According to a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, the long lines and strong sales might not be so bullish: “If the economy was perfect, they wouldn’t stand in line at 5 a.m.”

Good point, and it raises an important question for investors looking to handicap holiday sales. If shoppers are being price-conscious, are the retailers going to be able to make a lot of money? It’s doubtful. The New York Times’ Floyd Norris wondered in a recent post whether loss leaders bring profits. If people are just heading to the stores and picking up the Black Friday specials and leaving, that’s not good for the stores.

According to the New York Times, “The reports suggest that jittery consumers were flocking to rock-bottom prices and to little else - a boon for discounters like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), but trouble for higher-end chains like Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) that are averse to discounting.”

If Wal-Mart is driving its sales by crushing its margins, though, Wall Street probably won’t be too thrilled.

Continue reading Retailers score strong Black Friday sales — but did they make any money?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.