Black Friday/Supply Chain

[Yupo]

I ventured out yesterday for Black Friday. I didn't go many places. Parking lots were full, carts all taken up, but stores did not seem congested at all. Checkout was no waiting. Selection looked rather picked over, as in only one or 2 things left of a given item on the shelf. Maybe there wasn't much inventory to begin with. Popular stuff like the newest game consoles were nowhere to be seen. I was surprised at a new kind of inflation at Target: pricey fashion flatware sold in boxes with only one place setting in there!

 

[Pluchi]

I ventured out yesterday for Black Friday. I didn't go many places. Parking lots were full, carts all taken up, but stores did not seem congested at all. Checkout was no waiting. Selection looked rather picked over, as in only one or 2 things left of a given item on the shelf. Maybe there wasn't much inventory to begin with. Popular stuff like the newest game consoles were nowhere to be seen. I was surprised at a new kind of inflation at Target: pricey fashion flatware sold in boxes with only one place setting in there!

The *consumerist* world is changing. I live in the USA and there was not much noise about Black Friday as it has been in the past. Even online! I forgot all about it, then someone mentioned it on either Instagram or Twitter, and I went to check one of my favorite shopping websites. There was not much going on. There is a clear change in the economy: Higher gas prices, emptier supermarket shelves, reduced sizes of products, food quality/serving sizes in restaurants, and more demands for vaccinations of suppliers that result in less distribution and more upheaval that msm refuse to show. I am wondering how things will be like for Christmas.

 

[Alejo]

I suppose that a lot of that business has moved online, specially with the state of things these days. I remember hearing a few ads this year about "save time by shopping from home!" so I would think that a lot of the shopping madness would have taken place online for most people.

At the same time, a lot of retailers aren't able to put products they do not have access to on sale, they simply have no stock on a lot of items, so maybe there wasn't that big of a push this time around? I suspect christmas will be just as odd this year, specially with the new smash and grab situation going around the country in the US.