IDEAS BLACK FRIDAY MAY BE LOSING SOME MAGIC

摘要

For all the media attention focused on Black Friday, there's new evidence that it's getting a little gray for retailers. "No longer is Black Friday a single-day phenomenon," argues Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market researcher NPD Group. A new report titled "The Anatomy of Black Fridayrn2009," based on an NPD survey of 1,800 U.S. consumers, indicates that Americans are ever more inclined to spread out their shopping over the entire holiday shopping season, both in stores and online. One reason that's especially true this year is that big-name retailers, including Wal-Mart and Amazon.com, launchedrndiscounts and other promotions as early as October. But hard- core bargain hunters may be disappointed. In 2008 desperate retailers slashed prices up to 75% on their entire inventory, sacrificing profits in the process. The norm this year are discounts of 40%, and only on selected goodies, says Cohen.