New Black Friday insights

The National Retail Federation is out with some new data about what retailers can expect Thanksgiving weekend, and it is looking like the nation’s highways and stores will be jammed with as many as 138 million people. That’s according to NRF research about shopper intentions, which reveals 27.1% of those responding to the question, “Is it likely you will go shopping the Friday, Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving?” said yes and another 35.5% answered maybe. Slightly more than 37% said no. That’s a lot of folks, but it is not as many as in 2006 when 28.3% of respondents said yes and 36% said maybe.

More interesting than the obvious fact that a lot of people plan to shop after Thanksgiving is some of the demographic detail. Braving the nation’s highway and congested retail outlets is a young persons’ game with nearly half of those age 18 to 24 planning to shop. The percentages decline steadily from there until you get to the 65-and-older crowd where only 9.2% said they planned to shop.

Also interesting is the fact that men are as likely as women to shop Thanksgiving weekend with less than a percentage point separating the genders. Meanwhile, those with household incomes greater than $50,000 are more likely (29.7% yes) than those below that income threshold (25.3% yes) to shop next weekend.