It’s the biggest shopping day of the year and with optimism for a rebounding economy, Black Friday is under more scrutiny than usual.
Media around the country are expressing hope but disagree about whom the big day depends on: consumers or businesses.
We look at coverage from NBC, Forbes.com, CNBC, and CNN.
On NBC’s the Today Show, Jim Cramer has an optimistic outlook on the critical day for retailers, but says they’re being overly cautious.
“I think that people at the retail level and many of the managers of retail are not carrying a lot of product, not a lot of merchandise, because they were worried that things would be bad. It looks like that things are going to be okay. Much better than last year. So no, they’re not freaking out. They’re actually in pretty good shape.”
Forbes.com talks to a business owner who says success hinges on how well retail stores do their jobs.
“You see statistics that say retail will be relatively flat. Certainly that’s not our expectation for our business. I think people will be smart about the way they’re shopping, and those who are providing what speaks to the consumer in terms of the value that they’re looking for will be successful.”
An analyst on CNBC takes a different view, saying the success of Black Friday depends on the financial comfort of consumers.
“I think people are going to be looking at that consumer confidence number that comes out at 10:00 pretty carefully. It wasn’t so good last time out and I think people are going to be focusing on retailers with all the Black Friday hoopla and all that. Last time around it seemed like some of the upscale retailers were doing a little better, and if consumers are truly feeling well about their own situation they might go out and step up a little bit.”
CNN business anchor Jennifer Westhoven warns consumers about the strategies of some desperate retailers.
“Do you know that most are never going to get that amazing doorbuster deal that you saw in the circular?” The big red flag for you to look out for is ‘minimum: five per store’ or ‘minimum: three per store.’ That means for all those people on line, only three in the whole store? Many retail experts say that this is basically cheating. Sleazy! Now if you stand on that line for all that time, you may miss the deal, maybe you’ll think ‘Well I’ll just shop for some other gifts while I’m here.' Well just so you know, that is exactly what the store is counting on.”
So will you be bargain-hunting come Friday? Or will you avoid the fray?
Writer: Newsy Staff
Producer: Nathan Giannini
