APT Study – Early shopping hurts Thanksgiving weekend sales

Washington, D.C. – In-store sales were down from Thanksgiving Day through Black Friday, but the culprit may have been early holiday shopping more than lackluster consumer interest. According to the Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Index of U.S. same-store sales, in-store sales dropped 5.8% during that two-day period compared to the previous year.



However, data from the APT Index suggests that consumers began their holiday shopping earlier this year, as November same-store sales were positive leading into the holiday. The nationwide APT Index of same-store retail sales indicated that a 5.9% decrease in number of transactions drove the two-day same-store sales decrease. Dollars per transaction, or transaction size, was relatively flat according to the APT Index. Overall sales performance was worse in the Northeast, an area that experienced poor weather conditions during those two days.



The APT Index also showed that consumers may have started their holiday shopping earlier this year. The week before Thanksgiving had a 3% increase in same-store sales, and same-store sales for November leading into the holiday were up 2%.



Furthermore, the APT Index indicated that sales for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday varied among the Top 25 metro areas. The metro areas where the APT Index showed retailers performing the best were: Riverside, Calif. with a 3.6% sales increase; Los Angeles with a 3.5% increase, and Denver with a 3.3% increase. The areas where the APT Index showed retail sales performing the worst were: Minneapolis with a 12.3% drop, St. Louis with an 11.4% decline, and Boston with a 10.8% decrease.