Black Friday Shoppers Young, Well-Off
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 11/13/2007 8:33:00 AM
St. Louis — More than one third of respondents to a recent Maritz Poll (37 percent) plan to shop on the day after Thanksgiving. That’s slightly up from last year’s 34 percent. Even better news for retailers, rich people are more likely to hit the stores: 45 percent of respondents with household incomes of $100,000 or more plan to shop on Black Friday, compared to only 30 percent of those with less than $25,000.
Black Friday shoppers also plan to spend more overall on holiday purchases: $790 compared to $637 for all shoppers. Black Friday shoppers tend to be younger as well as more affluent: 59 percent of Gen Y and 46 percent of Gen X plan to shop, compared to only 23 percent of Boomers and 21 percent of what market research firm Maritz refers to as the Silent Generation.
According to the poll, the average spend this holiday season will be down 10 percent from 2006. One quarter of all respondents said they would spend less this year, with 50 percent of those giving “less money to spend this year” as their primary reason.
