Tired or thrift? Some industry experts expect a strong turnout on the Black Friday weekend, but cautioned that did not mean a strong holiday season, as shopping tails off in the weeks before Christmas.
The unsettled state of the US economy, with a 26-year high in unemployment and tighter access to credit, has industry holiday sales forecasts varying widely from a decline of 3 percent to an increase of 2 percent.
Early hopes for a consumer-led recovery have pushed retail shares up 47 percent this year, compared with a 23 percent rise for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
While most research in the last two months showed shoppers planned to spend less or the same in 2009 from a year ago during the holidays, that stance may be softening.
Nearly one-third of consumers surveyed by Deloitte said they now expect to spend more than they had planned a month or two ago. The survey, conducted last week, polled 1,051 people with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Carma Edwards, a 29-year-old nurse, is one of those shoppers who has tired of thrift. She bumped up her holiday budget to USD2,000 from USD500 last year. Asked what triggered the splurge: "A new job!" she said.
