Black Friday tends to cause a bit of chaos every year. Especially because it’s not so much a single day of good deals as a constantly expanding period of non-stop sales (and annoying ads). It’s a busy time for shoppers, sure. But it’s ‘all hands on deck’ for many companies, too. When your profit margins hang in the balance, you have to sprint, and there’s hardly any time for rest.

It feels like anyone who has anything to sell is vying for your attention and your hard-earned cash, and they’re dominating more of the holiday period. There’s a reason for that: it’s good for business. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year's can be very lucrative.

According to Investopedia, the financial situation improved (slightly) for many American households in October, ahead of the holiday shopping season.

In short, US households had a bit more money in their wallets than expected, as per a recent report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income rose 0.6% over October, double what researchers had predicted.

While that 0.6% increase might not sound like a lot of money, any additional cash you can choose how you spend is valuable. Meanwhile, after-tax income, adjusted for inflation, rose 0.4% in October.

“The rebound in real income growth in October means consumers still have enough gas in the tank to pull off a decent holiday shopping season this year,” says Scott Anderson, chief US economist at BMO Capital Markets.

None of us know how much consumers will have spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday until we have the data, but we can guesstimate and extrapolate based on the trends from recent years.

Investopedia explains that US consumer spending on gifts and other holiday-related expenses has increased year over year since 2009. Naturally, it’s expected that Americans will spend more in 2024 than in the past.

Forecasters at the National Retail Federation predict that holiday retail sales in November and December of this year will grow between 2.5% and 3.5%, setting a record between $979.5 billion and $989 billion.

In 2023, sales stood at $955.6 billion. Meanwhile, back in 2022, they amounted to $929.5 billion. These were both record years.

That’s nearly a trillion dollars in holiday sales predicted for 2024 in the United States. However, when numbers get that big, it’s hard to visualize them. So, you need to anchor them to something else.

For comparison’s sake, Statista reports that the global GDP was around $100 trillion as of 2022.

Meanwhile, Forbes’ real-time billionaire list reports that the richest people in the world (at the time of writing) are worth $322.2 billion (Elon Musk), $224.1 billion (Larry Ellison), $221.4 billion (Jeff Bezos), and $198.9 billion (Mark Zuckerberg).

As per Investopedia, candy and decorations sales pick up as early as September. It makes sense because with Spooky Season and Halloween coming up, people want to get ready.

A year ago, in September 2023, the four main gift categories people planned to spend money on included gift cards (55%), clothing or accessories (49%), books, video games, or other media (28%), and personal care or beauty items (25%). 182 million American shoppers bought these gifts over the Thanksgiving weekend in 2023, a whopping 15.7 million people more than the year prior.

Though Cyber Monday is impactful, it still doesn’t quite match the raw power of Black Friday. Referring to the National Retail Foundation’s data, Investopedia notes that 72% (130.7 million) of Americans planned on shopping on Black Friday in 2023.

On the other hand, 39% (71.1 million people) said they planned to spend some money on Cyber Monday. However, digital is potentially winning slightly over physical. As many as 58% of consumers are estimated to go online to do their shopping.

What’s your take on Black Friday, dear Pandas? Which of these memes did you enjoy the most?

Are you shopping for anything specific this holiday season? Are you buying your Xmas gifts early? Or are you going offline, trying to stay away from the chaos, and focusing on family and friends instead?

Let us know! Tell us all about it in the comments.