Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

New York City -- Nielsen’s annual Black Friday Shopping Survey, released Tuesday, found that 80% of consumers don’t plan to shop on Black Friday. Of those that do, 71% will head to department stores, 52% to electronics stores, 51% to mass merchandisers and discounters, 40% will shop online, 27% will visit toy stores and 23% will shop warehouse clubs.

North Plainfield, N.J. -- Shopping center owner and manager Levin Management Corp., in its annual pre-holiday survey, found that more than a third of its retail tenants predict 2011 sales will be higher than 2010’s, while just 18.9% project a drop in sales for the 2011 holiday season.

The remaining 44.2% expect this year’s holiday sales to mirror last year’s.

New York City -- A survey released Tuesday by Deloitte, which polled 1,000 consumers, found that the majority – 51% – will shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend. Among them, 66% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 17% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving Day.

The survey also found that shoppers expect to spend an average of $224 over the holiday weekend.

NEW YORK — Most consumers have their wallets ready for Thanksgiving weekend and are armed with plans to spend an average of $224, according to Deloitte's pre-Thanksgiving shopping survey.

Chicago -- Nearly 70% of U.S. adults would avoid shopping at a retail store if they encountered empty shelves, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by Galleria Retail Technology Solutions, a leading provider of retail and category optimization solutions. Long checkout lines are another big turnoff (64%).

CHICAGO — Heading into Black Friday weekend, retailers would be wise to make sure their shelves are fully stocked. According to a study by Harris Interactive on behalf of Galleria Retail Technology Solutions, a provider of retail and category optimization solutions, nearly 70% of U.S. adults would avoid shopping at a retail store if they encountered empty shelves.

Chicago -- Up to 60% more shoppers will enter stores on Dec. 26 than on the same day last year, according to ShopperTrak, the world's largest provider of retail and mall foot traffic counting services. The reason for the increase is due to the calendar: Shoppers will come out in full force on the day after Christmas because it falls on a Monday for the first time in six years. That day will rank third in foot traffic for the holiday shopping season, surpassed only by Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and Super Saturday, the Saturday one week before Christmas.

Gritty and dry are not words normally associated with a delicious chocolate chip cookie, but that is how Consumer Reports described most of the cookies tested in its December issue, including Target’s Market Pantry and Archer Farm’s brands.