Page 25 - atoday
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BUSINESS A25
Tuesday 1 December 2015
Change in Thanksgiving weekend spending stumps retailers
A. D’INNOCENZIO the changes are aimed at The moves are significant comparable because of its percent to $630.5 billion.
AP Retail Writer getting a fuller picture of because retail experts, in- change in methodology. That’s below last year’s 4.1
U.S. shoppers no longer shoppers’ habits, including vestors and economists It also estimated that percent growth.
blow the bulk of their holi- their growing affinity for on- look to the group’s Thanks- spending per person was Year-over-year growth is
day budgets on the day line buying. giving weekend numbers $299.60. That’s below the getting increasingly harder
after Thanksgiving known The group, which has long to provide an indication nearly $381 figure last year, to come by, as the week-
as Black Friday. been criticized for its es- of the mood of consumers but the group also said this end crowds proved. Mall of
It’s a major shift that has timates of total spend- heading into the holiday year’s spending number is America, the nation’s larg-
made it difficult for stores to ing over the extended shopping season, a period not comparable to those in est shopping mall, said visits
track and learn from shop- on Thanksgiving and Black
pers’ spending habits dur- Ana Irias tries on a hat at a store in Dolphin Mall, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015, in Miami. Store retailers Friday, were about even
ing the traditional start to saw fewer customer visits on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, compared with last year, according with last year.
the busy holiday shopping to Kevin Kearns, ShopperTrak’s chief revenue officer. “It’s no longer the crazy
season. rush when doors open,”
Take Pia Tracy, who bought (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) said Dan Jasper, a Mall of
some items at Pier 1 home America spokesman
furnishings store over the weekend because they’re of historically strong spend- previous years. Business was brisk but not
weekend. But Tracy, who based on shopper sur- ing. The data, without year- overwhelming at a Macy’s
lives in Queens, N.Y., plans veys and not actual sales The retail group on Sunday over-year comparisons, in Kansas City, Missouri at
to spread out the majority data, said it will no longer said more than 151 million paints an incomplete pic- 10 a.m. on Friday as a cold,
of her $4,000 holiday bud- track total spending for the people shopped in stores ture of the behavior and steady drizzle fell. No lines
get throughout the season. weekend. It also said it’s or online over the week- spending of U.S. shoppers had more than a few cus-
“Black Friday weekend asking shoppers different end, according to a sur- over the weekend. But tomers.
doesn’t matter to me any- questions, which has led it vey of 4,281 shoppers. That overall, the group sticks by In Denver early on Black Fri-
more,” Tracy said. “There’s to report numbers that vary compares with 133.7 mil- its pre-Black Friday predic- day, the crowds were simi-
always some kind of deal significantly from those it’s lion last year, but the group tion that sales in November larly thin. In a strip mall that
in-store or online.” gotten in previous years. said those figures are not and December will rise 3.7 included Kmart, every store
Like Tracy, many U.S. shop- was open, but the only one
pers like to make purchas- with a shopper inside was
es on their desktops and Starbucks.
smartphones nowadays, Kevin Sandoval had never
they insist on getting big gone shopping on Black Fri-
discounts whenever they day, but he was lured by a
shop, and they don’t feel Sam’s Club TV deal — $100
pressured to shop on par- off a 55-inch television.
ticular days. Loading his car in the near-
That shift has caused the empty parking lot, San-
National Retail Federation, doval said he was in and
the nation’s largest retail out of the store in about
trade group, to overhaul 15 minutes. He expected
the way it tracks shopper a crowd, but found just a
spending and visits during handful of other shoppers.
the four-day Thanksgiving “There was no one here,”
weekend — something it’s he said. “This is a hidden
been doing for more than gem now, coming out to
a decade. The group said shop on Black Friday.”q
Ford to book $600M 4Q expense for new labor contract
DEE-ANN DURBIN The Ford blue oval badge is in the grill of a 2015 Ford F-150 XLT nates a two-tier wage sys- product introductions, ac-
TOM KRISHER on display in the showroom at Butler County Ford in Butler, Pa. tem at its plants over eight cording to Bill Dirksen, Ford’s
AP Auto Writers Ford said Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, it will book a $600 million years. Ford also agreed to vice president of labor re-
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor fourth-quarter expense mainly for signing bonuses paid to union $9 billion in U.S. factory in- lations. Dirksen wouldn’t
Co. will book a $600 million workers under a new four-year contract. vestments and said the say how many temporary
charge in the fourth quar- deal would add or secure workers Ford currently has.
ter for signing bonuses paid (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) 8,500 U.S. factory jobs. Most Ford CEO Mark Fields said
to union workers under a workers will get an $8,500 the contract also gives the
new four-year contract. signing bonus and $1,500 in company flexibility to move
But the company said early profit sharing. production to lower-wage
Monday that the deal with But the agreement will countries like Mexico.
the United Auto Workers save the company money “We’re not restricted from
limits labor cost increases by allowing more flexible sourcing products any-
to 1.5 percent per year and work schedules and lifting where in the Ford world
is consistent with its full-year a cap on the number of for sale in North America,”
financial guidance. Ford is employees making entry- Fields told analysts and me-
forecasting a pretax profit level wages. dia during a conference
of between $8.5 billion and Ford also will be allowed call. Ford’s hourly workers
$9.5 billion this year. to use “significantly more” approved the agreement
The new contract gives rais- temporary workers dur- by a 51-percent margin
es to all of Ford’s 53,000 U.S. ing summer vacations on Nov. 20 after months of
hourly workers and elimi- and busytimes like new bargaining. q
