- Joined
- Apr 8, 2005
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Story
"After Thanksgiving comes Black Friday, so described not out of some sense of gloom or despondency but because that's when the ink on retailers' ledgers goes from red to black as shoppers hit the stores prepared to spend an estimated $457 billion between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And this year the retailers are gracing us with Cyber Monday, the ceremonial start to the online shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation. ... Online holiday season sales were more than $27 billion last year, not a market the retailers are going to ignore. ... Holiday shopping accounts for almost 20% of annual sales. ... Those big numbers are why the holiday season is of such interest to economic analysts. ... Some of the more fastidious might be discomfited by this annual exercise in consumption and materialism, but consumer spending is the engine that drives the American economy from which so many benefits flow."
"After Thanksgiving comes Black Friday, so described not out of some sense of gloom or despondency but because that's when the ink on retailers' ledgers goes from red to black as shoppers hit the stores prepared to spend an estimated $457 billion between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And this year the retailers are gracing us with Cyber Monday, the ceremonial start to the online shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation. ... Online holiday season sales were more than $27 billion last year, not a market the retailers are going to ignore. ... Holiday shopping accounts for almost 20% of annual sales. ... Those big numbers are why the holiday season is of such interest to economic analysts. ... Some of the more fastidious might be discomfited by this annual exercise in consumption and materialism, but consumer spending is the engine that drives the American economy from which so many benefits flow."
