ADRIAN MA, HOST:
One thing many Americans have been doing the past couple of days is - can you guess what I'm going to say - eating, napping? - well, hopefully, napping - but no, I'm thinking about shopping. This is the biggest shopping weekend of the year, and this is actually a fairly unusual one because of the calendar. NPR business correspondent Alina Selyukh is here to explain why and what this tells us about the state of the economy. What's up, Alina?
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Hello, hello.
MA: So don't keep us in suspense. What is the deal with this calendar year?
SELYUKH: Yeah. It's an unusual one. It is a very short holiday shopping season. If you think about it, you'll guess why. Thanksgiving is much later in November. So compared to last year, we actually have five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
MA: Ooh, so it's a lot fewer days.
SELYUKH: It is. It is. And, you know, like, why does it matter? Why do we care? Well, it's a huge deal to retailers because that means there are fewer days to sell you everything they want to sell you, which means they started sales earlier. There's a big rush to get stuff into your shopping carts. And some experts think that means these Black Friday-style sales might keep rolling out to, you know, have them clear out their holiday stock.
MA: OK, so, like, does it seem to be working?
SELYUKH: You know, so far data suggests people are happy to help retailers clear out their holiday shelves. People are in a super spending mood. I can tell you personally, I went to an outlet mall in suburban Maryland, and there were lines out the door in chilly weather to Nike, Crocs, more luxury brands, like Calvin Klein, Coach. I spent 10 minutes in standstill traffic just to get into the parking lot and then about the same amount of time to get out of the parking lot. And the data does suggest people are in a spending mood.
MA: OK, so it's not just that, like, the roads are really packed with people trying to shop. There's a lot of shopping happening.
SELYUKH: Indeed. Yeah. So there's a company called Adobe Analytics, and that company tracks online transactions. And they've been sending alerts all weekend - another record set, another record set, start of November beat last year's record. Thanksgiving beat last year's record. On Black Friday, online shoppers spent 10% more this year than last year. That's more than $10 billion just spent on online shopping on Black Friday.
MA: Wait, wait, wait, are we talking about Black Friday-Friday or the whole thing that we're...
SELYUKH: Just on Black Friday...
MA: Just on one day.
SELYUKH: ...Adobe says 10 - over - almost $11 billion was spent by online shoppers.
MA: Wow, OK.
SELYUKH: Overall, there's data from Mastercard, and they estimate sales both in store and online were higher this Black Friday compared to last by 3.4%. People spent on clothes, on electronics, jewelry, but actually a lot on food, also, splurging for holiday dinners at home and at restaurants.
MA: OK, interesting. I mean, this makes me think, for the past couple years, the data have been showing inflation falling and wages rising. And when you survey people, they don't really feel that. They're still worried about inflation. So did this shopping spree sort of suggest that that's changing?
SELYUKH: You know, this one is tricky. Obviously, we are spending so much that it's not that we're buying less stuff with more money, that we're buying, you know, more expensive things. We are actually buying more things. Talking to shoppers, they do all talk about inflation and higher prices, especially people bring up insurance - car insurance, health insurance. A few people told me that that was actually why they were out shopping on Black Friday. They're trying to look for deals and discounts and feeling like these days are the right moment to try to save on holiday gifts. And that's kind of what retail economists say about this year - that people are concerned and tightening their budgets, but they're feeling festive. They are spending on gifts. And altogether, we are in for another record-setting holiday shopping spree.
MA: Makes sense. NPR's Alina Selyukh, thanks so much for breaking this down for us.
SELYUKH: Thank you. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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