BLACK FRIDAY BACK BUT NOT THE SAME
Overall, Black Friday store traffic were more
robust than last year but was still below pre-
pandemic levels as shoppers spread out their
buying in response to earlier deals in October
and shifted more of their spending online. Sales
on Friday were either below or had modest
gains compared with pre-pandemic levels of
2019, according to various spending measures.
Black Friday sales surged 29.8% through mid-
afternoon, compared with the year-ago period,
according to Mastercard SpendingPulse,
which tracks all types of payments, including
cash and credit cards. That was above its 20%
growth forecast for the day. Steve Sadove,
senior adviser for Mastercard, says the numbers
speak to the “strength of the consumer.” For the
Friday through Sunday period, sales rose 14.1%
compared with the same period in 2020 and
were up 5.8% compared to 2019,
Mastercard reported.
Customer counts soared 60.8% on Black Friday
compared with a year ago, but were down
26.9% on the same day in 2019, according to
RetailNext, which analyzes store traffic with
monitors and sensors in thousands of stores.
Sales rose 46.4% on Black Friday but were
down 5.1% in 2019, according to RetailNext.
Sensormatic, another firm that tracks customer
traffic, reported a 47.5% surge in traffic on
Black Friday compared with a year ago but that
number fell 28.3% compared with 2019.