The combination of not finding the correct item at the right price - in addition to a labor shortage that makes it harder for businesses to react to customer needs - made for a less festive mood.
Shoppers are expected to pay on average of between five percent to 17 percent more for toys, clothing, appliances, TVs, and different purchases on Black Friday this year compared with last year, according to Aurelien Duthoit, the senior sector advisor at Allianz Research.
According to the research firm, TVs saw the highest price hike on average, up 17 percent from a year ago. That's because whatever discounts available will be applied to goods that are already expensive.
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"I think it is going to be a messy holiday season," announced Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail.
"It will be a bit frustrating for retailers, consumers and the workers. We are going to see long lines. We are going to see messier stores. We are going to see delays as you collect online orders."
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In the meantime, online sales over the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday are further predicted to reach as high as $36.4billion, up by almost $2billion last year.
Although not all shoppers are taking part in the shopping season this year, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index suggests consumer confidence has reached a 10-year low.
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And CNBC reports a poll by Deloitte has discovered that as many as 11.5 percent of people are plotting to sit out the holiday season by not getting any gifts this year.
This represents a record high since the firm first began tracking the statistic.
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Their poll further discovered that high-income households will spend up to five times more this holiday season than low-income families.
Speaking of the finding, Deloitte's executive director Steven Rogers announced: "This tale of two holidays is a pretty good reflection of the tale of two pandemics, right?"
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"What starts off as a health crisis turns into a financial crisis if you're in the lower-income [bracket]."
"Those of us who have investments in 401ks did quite well. You can see from 2019 to 2021, the lower-income group is spending almost half of what they used to spend. And the higher income group is almost double what they used to spend two years ago."
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For years, Black Friday has been losing value amongst customers, and since 2011, stores jumpstarted the holiday shopping season by opening their doors on Thanksgiving to compete with Amazon and other rising online threats.
Though the shift merely cannibalized Black Friday sales. The shopping bonanza was further diluted when stores began marketing Black Friday sales for the full week and then later for the month.
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