{"id":1752265,"date":"2022-11-27T06:11:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T11:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1752265"},"modified":"2022-11-27T06:18:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T11:18:02","slug":"u-s-retailers-consumers-brace-for-unusual-christmas-shopping-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-retailers-consumers-brace-for-unusual-christmas-shopping-season\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Retailers, Consumers Brace for Unusual Christmas Shopping Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-retailers-consumers-brace-for-unusual-christmas-shopping-season%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1752265&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Now that the turkey has been gobbled up and the apple pie has been devoured, it is the official start of the holiday shopping season. But in today\u2019s inflationary environment, retailers are bracing for cost-conscious shoppers, and cash-strapped customers are on the hunt for deals. Will this be the most unusual time of the year?<\/p>\n<p>During the Thanksgiving weekend, an estimated 166.3 million consumers are planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, up by nearly eight million people from a year ago, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nrf.com\/media-center\/press-releases\/record-1663-million-shoppers-expected-during-thanksgiving-weekend\">National Retail Federation (NRF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s annual survey found that more than two-thirds (69 percent) of holiday shoppers plan to shop during the Thanksgiving weekend, with more than half (59 percent) saying that the deals are too good to pass up. A little more than one-quarter (27 percent) note that it is a tradition, while a fifth report that it is something to do during this period.<\/p>\n<p>Black Friday remains the most popular day to consume, and 67 percent will make in-store purchases, up 64 percent from a year ago. Cyber Monday is the second most popular shopping day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile there is much speculation about inflation\u2019s impact on consumer behavior, our data tells us that this Thanksgiving holiday weekend will see robust store traffic with a record number of shoppers taking advantage of value pricing,\u201d said Matthew Shay, the NRF President and CEO, in a statement. \u201cWe are optimistic that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-retail-sales\">retail sales<\/a> will remain strong in the weeks ahead, and retailers are ready to meet consumers however they want to shop with great products at prices they want to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3136287\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2019\/11\/04\/shoppers-1200x800.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-3136287\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/shoppers-600x400-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Shoppers wait in line for Apple iPhone\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3136287\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/shoppers-600x400-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Shoppers wait in line for Apple iPhone\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Shoppers wait in line for Apple iPhone purchases during a Black Friday sale at a Target store in Newport, Ky., on Nov. 23, 2018. (John Minchillo\/AP Photo)<\/figure>\n<p>The retail trade organization forecasts that holiday retail sales will climb between 6 and 8 percent year-over-year to close to $943 billion during November and December.<\/p>\n<p>This is in line with a <a href=\"https:\/\/mycreditsummit.com\/online-shopping-statistics\/\">report<\/a> from financial services firm Credit Summit that found that nearly one-third of consumers anticipate spending more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday than in previous years.<\/p>\n<p>Despite some of the upbeat projections, Target <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.target.com\/press\/releases\/2022\/11\/Target-Corporation-Reports-Third-Quarter-Earnings\">forecasted<\/a> a drop in holiday-quarter sales, citing rampant price inflation and \u201cdramatic changes\u201d in consumer spending. The retailer is penciling in fourth-quarter sales to decline to a low single-digit percentage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly it\u2019s an environment where consumers have been stressed,\u201d Target Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell said last month.<\/p>\n<h2>Seasonal Hiring<\/h2>\n<p>Could the U.S. retail landscape see a growth in employment during a historically busy season?<\/p>\n<p>According to NRF, retailers are projected to hire between 450,000 and 600,000 seasonal workers this winter, down from 669,800 last year.<\/p>\n<p>Many corporate titans, including FedEx, Macy\u2019s, and Walmart, say they plan to hire fewer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-christmas\">Christmas<\/a> workers this year than in 2021. Amazon, however, maintained its solid seasonal hiring trends. The online retail juggernaut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20221006005253\/en\/Amazon-is-Hiring-150000-Employees-to-Help-Deliver-Great-Holiday-Experiences\">announced<\/a> in October it will hire 150,000 people with an average starting hourly wage of $19 and sign-on bonuses of up to $3,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re proud to offer a wide variety of roles for people of all backgrounds, with more than 150,000 roles available across the country. Whether someone is looking for some extra money for a few months or a long-term career, the holidays are a great time for people to join Amazon, and many of our seasonal employees return year-after-year or transition into full-time roles,\u201d said John Felton, Amazon\u2019s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>A recent study by business services firm Incfile <a href=\"https:\/\/www.incfile.com\/blog\/incfile-small-business-holiday-marketing-survey\">learned<\/a> that a third of small businesses are struggling to find seasonal employees compared to previous years.<\/p>\n<p>But industry observers purport that this could be due to the solid job creation that occurred in 2022. This might imply less of a need for temp employment, especially in the retail sector, where nearly 16 million people are employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 (BLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/empsit.nr0.htm\">October jobs report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Tis the Season to Depend on Credit?\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Market analysts have weighed how much inflation will affect consumption trends this year.<\/p>\n<p>A new study by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insiderintelligence.com\/content\/us-holiday-shopping-2022#page-charts\">Insider Intelligence and eMarketer<\/a> suggested that higher inflation could lift holiday sales as consumer spending is forecast to increase 7 percent to nearly $1.3 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>And the growing cost of Christmas gifts is <a href=\"https:\/\/thrivingcenterofpsych.com\/blog\/setting-healthy-boundaries\/\">contributing<\/a> to an already stressful time for families nationwide, a new survey by the Thriving Center of Psychology.<\/p>\n<p>Fifty-two percent of Americans are concerned about how much they are spending during the holiday season, while nearly two-thirds (64 percent) admitted experiencing stress about paying for gifts.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, many shoppers are planning to purchase fewer items or adjust their shopping patterns to cut costs, according to a recent poll by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailmenot.com\/blog\/holiday-shopping-survey-data-2022.html\">RetailMeNot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Seventy percent of shoppers are incorporating inflation into their holiday plans, with roughly half of the surveyed adults planning to spend 8 percent less than they did last year. On average, U.S. consumers plan to spend $725, compared to $786 in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>According to the poll, 51 percent plan to buy fewer presents, 36 percent will use more coupons, and 27 percent will scale back on gift-giving.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to a 7.7 percent annual inflation rate, real hourly wages have fallen for 19 consecutive months, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/personal-savings\">personal savings rate<\/a> has collapsed to around 3 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Since the post-Christmas studies typically highlight that many Americans overspent during the holidays, will families give into the temptation of taking on debt to buy gifts? A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/money.usnews.com\/credit-cards\/articles\/survey-nearly-42-expect-to-go-into-debt-to-pay-for-the-holidays\">survey<\/a> from U.S. News &#038; World Report discovered that 41 percent already expect to rely on credit cards and buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans to pay for presents and travel.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the holiday season started, debt growth was rising. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/microeconomics\/hhdc.html\">data<\/a> from the Federal Reserve, household debt surged to $16.51 trillion in the third quarter, including a 15 percent year-over-year increase in credit card balances, representing the largest jump in over two decades.<\/p>\n<p>As pandemic-era stimulus savings run dry and interest rates climb across lending markets, delinquency rates are beginning to rise, Liberty Street Economics <a href=\"https:\/\/libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org\/2022\/11\/balances-are-on-the-rise-so-who-is-taking-on-more-credit-card-debt\/\">noted<\/a> in a blog post. However, they remain lower compared to the Great Recession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be important to monitor the path of these delinquency rates going forward: Is this simply a reversion to earlier levels, with forbearances ending and stimulus savings drying up, or is this a sign of trouble ahead?\u201d asked central bank economists Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Daniel Mangrum, Joelle Scally, and Wilbert van der Klaauw.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-andrew-moran\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_AndrewMoran.jpeg\" alt=\"Andrew Moran\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Andrew Moran has been writing about business, economics, and finance for more than a decade. He is the author of &#8220;The War on Cash.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that the turkey has been gobbled up and the apple pie has been devoured, it is the official start of the holiday shopping season. But in today\u2019s inflationary environment,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1752268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1752265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1752265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1752265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1752265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1752265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}