The holiday shopping season is off to a good start as a record number of Americans shopped over Thanksgiving weekend.
Key Details
- As COVID restrictions have been mostly lifted across the U.S., Americans are heading online and in stores to do holiday shopping.
- A record number of Americans shopped both online and in store from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to the results of a National Retail Federation survey.
- The number of shoppers grew from around 179 million last year to 196.7 million this year marking a 10% increase.
- The record amount of shoppers this year shattered expectations for the holiday shopping season.
Why it’s news
Thanksgiving weekend typically consists of a major holiday shopping spree for many Americans.
It was estimated that around 140 million Americans would partake in the Thanksgiving holiday sales, but those expectations were greatly exceeded when more than 196.7 million Americans began shopping.
Forecasts predicted numbers to be down considering most families have been hit hard with inflation and skyrocketing prices causing most to slow down spending. That didn’t slow shoppers down as millions were rushing to buy items in store and online.
Many analysts think the record high numbers could be a good indicator of how Americans are feeling about the future of the economy.
“We know that this is just a single five-day period throughout the 60 days…between November 1 and December 31. But we believe it continues to be a good indicator…of the overall health of the consumer and the economy—and I think a predictor of continued behavior,” says NRF CEO Matt Shay.
Many think the rise in shopping numbers is due to pent up demand caused by the pandemic. Shopping was slowed for years as businesses were closed or had restrictions and families were saving money due to uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
Now that most restrictions have been lifted and families are once again opening up their homes many Americans are flooding to buy gifts and enjoy the holiday season.