Although it’s an old wives’ tale that the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the biggest single shopping day before Christmas, Black Friday is surely one of the biggest—and it does signal the start of the all-important holiday season for CE makers, retailers, big-box outlets, and consumers.
While Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon.com and other major retailers likely have some big (albeit perhaps brief) HD-centric sales up their marketing sleeves that typically are not announced until just prior to Black Friday, this year’s American economy—hampered by a housing crisis, the falling U.S. dollar and sharp jumps in gasoline prices—poses a big question mark for the holiday season.
Still, if the entire week of Black Friday next week (Nov. 19-23) is anything approaching last year’s interval, things could get interesting. According to industry research analyst DisplaySearch, last year’s Black Friday week accounted for nearly 20 percent of all TV “sell-through units” and more than 17 percent of revenues for the entire fourth quarter of 2006.
DisplaySearch plans to discuss results of this season’s Black Friday week on its annual post-season Webinar on Dec. 7.
