Bleak Friday
The RBA will watching closely as Australians hunt for bargains during the festive shopping season, starting with Black Friday.
Social media feeds are about to be filled with shopping haul videos, because we’ve reached one the most spendy times of the year — Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
About $6.4 billion will flow into retail business coffers from today until the start of next week, according to forecasts from Roy Morgan and the Australian Retailers Association. That’s a critically big chunk of change before Christmas.
But this year, it won’t just be clothes and smartphones that get snapped up — surveys are telling us that shoppers are planning to bring home very different products this time round. The Commonwealth Bank’s research shows the majority (78%) want to use this weekend to buy essential items as well as the gadgets and gizmos we’re used to seeing fly off the shelves. That’s potentially cut-price pantry staples and home supplies.
A separate Finder survey found clothes (61%), electronics (43%) and beauty products (31%) all top the list for Black Friday weekend spending plans. But food and alcohol weren’t that far behind (27%). The top retailers being searched for in the sales are JB Hi-Fi, Apple, Harvey Norman, Kmart, Myer and Amazon.
