37
The percentage of American adults who will go shopping on Black Friday, according to new research from the Consumer Electronics Association. That's a staggering more than 1 in 3 of us! What are we all thinking!?
57
The percentage of Black Friday shoppers who "find the experience to be fun," according to a study of roughly 460 consumers for WWD by Marvin Traub Associates. (If this seems startlingly high to you, you might be comforted to know that 43 percent do NOT find it fun.)
42
The percentage of Black Friday shoppers in the Traub study who say they enjoy Black Friday shopping more than shopping any other day of the year.
2,470,000
The number of Google News results at press time for "Black Thursday," the term for stores starting Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving instead of midnight after Thanksgiving. The general mood in the media is that Black Thursday is a terrible idea because retail workers should be able to spend the holidays home with their families (and potential shoppers should be home eating with their loved ones instead of out buying stuff). Black Thursday is already getting pretty ugly, with workers at stores like Walmart — where Black Thursday begins at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving — and Target threatening to strike. A number of petitions to stop the madness are also going viral online.
4,000
The number of Walmart stores that will have extra security measures in place on Black Friday. "Nobody wants to go into an event when they are risking injury for a video game," Josh Phair, Walmart's public affairs and government relations director told the Arizona Republic. Well at least they figured that out this year!
225,000,000
The number of people who shopped on Black Friday last year.
11,400,000,000
The number of dollars spent on Black Friday last year.
3.1
The percent by which retailers expect Black Friday sales to grow this year. (Last year, growth of just 1.6 percent was forecast, so that might lead us to assume we have an especially fierce Black Friday ahead of us.)
2
The number of tents shopper Itzaida Díaz pitched outside of a Best Buy in Orlando, Florida a week before Black Friday. "We're really doing it for my son who landed second in line last year. He has a very competitive spirit," she told the Orlando Sentinel. Diaz is taking time off from her job as an accountant to camp outside of the store, where she plans to spend $1,500. Her son "wants a Toshiba 40-inch flat-screen TV, and we're also getting tablets, Sony PlayStations, Blu-ray players and other things." Why more than one of any of those things is necessary is unclear.
