Americans decide to make their Christmas purchases, in person or online

France Press Agency, published on Saturday, November 27, 2021 at 07:14

The Americans returned to stores on Friday for the sale of Black Friday, which traditionally starts the end of the year shopping season, but many have connected to the Internet for fear of shortages.

Silvia González, a masked consumer who met in the Pandora jewelry row in New York, for example, said: "To make sure that this Christmas is a successful Christmas" for all his friends and family, he said.

This determination to spend the holidays as it was before the health crisis promoted early purchases, even before the family action dinner, which took place on Thursday.

American consumers have already spent 76.000 million dollars in online retailers since the beginning of November, more than 20% with respect to the same period last year, according to data published on Friday by the Adobe Computer Company.

As expected, games in particular have been praised by "anxious parents, who are increasingly aware of the difficulties in the supply chain".

Specifically, shortages have increased: the number of items sold online has increased by 261% compared to two years ago.

This problem appeared in some stores, due to the delay in the manufacture and export of electronic chips in particular.

In Best Buy in Manhattan, an additional shelf for Apple devices was almost empty.Other chains such as Victoria’s Secret or Foot Locker lack some key products.

- "Personally" -

Taylor Schreiner, an adobe expert, expects more consumers to make online orders and pay for urgent delivery or collect their articles in person.

«It's not just because people want it to happen fast.They want to have it in their hands, to make sure they have a gift for the person, ”he told AFP.

To prevent the end of the year season from running out, retailers have taken extraordinary measures, such as importing and storing items earlier than usual, requesting air load deliveries and, in some cases, charting out their own ships.

With mixed results: while the big box chains like Walmart and Target are doing well with well -assorted stocks, others such as GAP and Nordstrom have already reported sales losses due to their inability to arrive on time for all coveted products.

Therefore, GAP plans to keep the defeated elements for next year, instead of having to eliminate them, explained the financial director of the label, Katrina O'Connell, during a telephone conference with Wall Street analysts this week this week.

"Consumers looking to buy early, (...) can develop shortage in the last weeks of the Christmas shopping season," said Jack Kleinens, NRF chief economist.

However, he expects an excellent "season" if the store shelves remain well supplied.

- New York in ‘Little City’ mode -

In total, Americans could already spend 10.5% more in this Christmas season than last year, both in stores and online, according to the American Retail Federation (NRF), which expects the total expenditure to reach 859.000 million dollars.

The economic resources of American families are particularly supported by government aid, with fiscal credits for families.

A positive impulse as prices continue to rise.Inflation, a "priority" of US President Joe Biden, is at his highest level in 31 years.

Only energy prices increased by 30.2% in October with respect to October 2020, according to the Personal Consumer Expenses Index of the Department of Commerce.Food prices have also risen.

This weighs on consumer confidence, which collapsed in November, according to the University of Michigan, which published the preliminary results of its monthly survey on Wednesday.

And now another threat is added: a new type of OMICRON for COVID-19, discovered in South Africa and considered "worrying" by the World Health Organization, which could derail world economic recovery.

Therefore, the return to "normality" is still difficult to achieve.In Macy’s, the posters remembered customers to keep the distance and Covid test sites have established themselves abroad.

"In 2018, this was the New York we all listen to," said German tourist Elke Zentek."Now it seems a bit a small city".