Quantcast

Jeff Green Partners

A LEADER IN RETAIL REAL ESTATE FEASIBILITY

jgreen@jeffgreenpartners.com

415-847-1770

Currently Featured

Millennials shape holiday shopping experience [Detroit Free Press :: ]

Georgia Kovanis / Livingston Daily – Angela Hernandez, who is 26, works as a social media specialist and has a lifetime of shopping ahead of her, is just the sort of person retailers want in their stores this holiday season.

And to pique her interest and that of her peers, retailers — who for years catered to the older, baby boomer generation — are updating the way they do business. They’re embracing social media, stocking merchandise made by small and local companies, featuring work from independent artists, selling hip items that give back to charitable causes and trying to turn a trip to the store into a real experience, in a good way. Which affects the way all shoppers shop, changing everything from merchandise selection to customer service.

Millennials shape the new holiday shopping experience

Georgea Kovanis / Detroit Free Press – Angela Hernandez, who is 26, works as a social media specialist and has a lifetime of shopping ahead of her, is just the sort of person retailers want in their stores this holiday season.

And to pique her interest and that of her peers, retailers — who for years catered to the older, baby boomer generation — are updating the way they do business. They’re embracing social media, stocking merchandise made by small and local companies, featuring work from independent artists, selling hip items that give back to charitable causes and trying to turn a trip to the store into a real experience, in a good way. Which impacts the way all shoppers shop, changing everything from merchandise selection to customer service.

Hernandez is a member of the millennial generation — the largest, most racially and ethnically diverse, best-educated and most tech-oriented generation in history. Millennials, who have been heavily impacted by the recession, are known for being super-informed, value-oriented shoppers who are slow to buy. And as their baby boomer parents age out of the shopping game — people buy less as they get older — and pass along their accumulated wealth, millennials are being targeted as the big spenders of the future.

Retailers brace for Black Friday

Jessica Dyer / Albuquerque Journal – Black Friday: It just isn’t like it used to be.

No longer does the day after Thanksgiving serve as the standard launch of the holiday shopping season. More than 40 percent of Americans start gift-buying before Halloween, according to a recent National Retail Federation survey, and many retailers decked their halls weeks ago.

Black Friday also is not the end-all, be-all for deals. Yes, door-busters abound for certain items, but scintillating sales crop up for weeks on either side of Thanksgiving.

Heck, “Black Friday” isn’t really even a Friday anymore as the term has come to encompass an extended spending extravaganza that begins right after pumpkin pie and, for some, extends for days.

For retailers, Thanksgiving sales here to stay

Lauren Abdel-Razzaq / The Detroit News – For the first time, most major retailers are preparing to offer holiday sales on Thanksgiving, extending the deals typically expected on Black Friday in hopes of whipping up excitement for the shopping period.

“We moan and groan and crab about it, but we still … do it,” said Bonnie Knutson, a professor at the School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. “If that deal is out there and (you’re) full of turkey and don’t want to watch another football game, that’s where you’ll be.”

Forecast fuzzy as Santa’s beard ECONOMY: Will it be retail’s turnaround year — or are shoppers still holding back?

Justine Griffin / Herald Tribune – We’ve heard it all before.

Pent-up demand. Cautious optimism. Earlier store openings. Online versus brick-and-mortar.

Predictions for retail this holiday season remain fuzzy.

Some, like the National Retail Federation, a trade group representing businesses around the nation, are optimistic that this could be the turnaround year for retail, which has suffered in the wake of the recession and struggled to keep up with the growing scope of online commerce.

Others believe consumer confidence isn’t quite there yet, even with falling unemployment rates and ever-cheaper gas. They see Americans as still shopping for value only.

The proof, as they say, will be in the proverbial pudding.

“Overall, the holiday season will probably be pretty steady,” said Jeff Green, a Phoenix-based retail analyst who predicts the season’s sales will rise by less than 3 to 5 percent compared with 2013. “It all depends on how the Black Friday weekend goes. If it doesn’t go well, retailers will have to discount merchandise quickly and through Christmas, which isn’t good for anyone.”

The Florida Retail Federation, which historically has produced optimistic forecasts for the Sunshine State, is predicting a 5 percent jump in sales this holiday season. An improving stock market, rising job creation and a steady housing market suggest a year of positive growth, said the group’s CEO, Rick McAllister.

November and December are where chain stores make a large portion of their sales for the year. Black Friday gets its name for the time of the year — once it was basically a single shopping day right after Thanskgiving — when stores turn a profit, the ink in their ledgers shifting from red to black.

But things have changed drastically in retail and continue to evolve, especially for Black Friday.

While growth has been slow but steady for retailers over the past few years, consumers just aren’t buying the way they used to, said Green, the Phoenix analyst.

“Black Friday isn’t about shopping on the day after Thanksgiving anymore,” he said. “It’s spread out all weekend. People aren’t cross-shopping, either. They’re coming in for the doorbuster deal and they’re leaving.

“Value is still very important.”

Braving the crowds

There are strong indications that most Americans won’t shop on Black Friday this year.

A study by Bankrate.com, a Palm Beach-based consumer financial firm, found only 28 percent of shoppers plan to make purchases inside a physical store on Black Friday.

That figure only rises to 40 percent when adding in those who will shop online that day.

“Consumers are well aware that deep discounts will be offered throughout the holiday shopping season,” Bankrate.com analyst Jeanine Skowronski said. “They don’t necessarily need to brave the Black Friday crowds to score them.”

The study also had a few surprises: Despite their tech-savvy reputation, shoppers in the 18-29 age group are 13 percentage points more likely to shop in stores on the day after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday 2014: West Michigan retailers announce Thanksgiving hours

Andrew Kuhn / MLive – GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Over the past two years, Black Friday has gained a solid six-hour foothold into Thanksgiving. This year, the line has moved from prime time to supper time. Most big box retailers and department stores, from Target to Kohl’s, will open at 6 p.m. on the holiday. […]