Black Friday 2018 not so good for brick and mortar as retail Armageddon continues into most important shopping days of the year

5:24 PM 2018, black friday, empty stores, online shopping, retail, retail armageddon, shopping, thanksgiving 2 Comments

2018 so far appears to not be a bad year for Black Friday shopping, but unfortunately this is not so for brick and mortar retailers.  And this is because early calculations are showing a 1% decline over last year for storefront sales at the same time online purchases continue to increase year over year.

ShopperTrak, a provider of channel checks and traffic insights for the retail industry, has just confirmed that foot traffic at  brick-and-mortar retail stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was disappointing. Preliminary data showed a 1% decline for the two-day period compared to 2017, with a 1.7% decline in traffic on Black Friday versus 2017. This decline in traffic is consistent with our forecast on Nov. 11 that traditional retailers could experience a weak holiday season. The culprit: online shopping. 

There is a silver lining: offsetting the decline in traditional traffic, online sales hit another record high of over $6.2 billion on Black Friday according to Adobe Analytics, while online sales on Thanksgiving Day tagged $3.7 billion, up 28% from last year. - Zerohedge

With thousands of stores having already closed earlier this year, and several major retailers forced to file for bankruptcy, it is likely that come January or February of next year when all the receipts have been calculated, this trend will continue despite a decent economy.