Black Friday Disappoints: Thin Crowds and ‘Desolate’ Stores.

No one is surprised by this.

Breitbart: Black Friday Disappoints: Thin Crowds and ‘Desolate’ Stores.

The busiest shopping day of the year is not as busy as retailers hoped.

Across the U.S., shopping malls are seeing only thin crowds, according to reports in business media. Inflation and depressed consumer sentiment appear to have dampened the holiday shopping spirit.

Reuters reported:

    At Times Square in New York City, which was cloudy with occasional light rain, employees were seen waiting inside stores for crowds that so far had not arrived.

    Outside the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, there were no lines outside stores. A ToysRUS employee was seen walking around the mall handing out flyers with a list of the Black Friday door busters.

Bloomberg reported:

    Around 10:30am at Crossgates Mall in Albany, New York, the ultra low-cost brands and the higher-end buzzy retailers had the most foot traffic, while the middle-market stores were desolate.

    Gap Inc.-owned Old Navy, which was offering 60% off most items, had a line so long that some shoppers turned around as soon as they entered the store. Athleisure favorite Lululemon Inc., which had only a few racks of discounted merchandise, and American Eagle Outfitters Inc.-owned Aerie, a popular intimates brand among Gen Z shoppers, also drew big crowds.

    Meanwhile, stores like Banana Republic, Macy’s and Urban Outfitters had no lines at all, and only a handful of shoppers.

But - - - it's a transitory economic issue.

David Hogg mocked by social media for, "new year, new look."

BPR: David Hogg unveils ‘new year, new look’ and the mockery goes on for days.

Left-wing activist David Hogg is trying to work his way back into the spotlight, but changing his look isn’t earning him the kind of recognition he was thinking about.

While most people use the beginning of a new year to make some changes in their lives, Hogg’s attempt at a “new year, new me” tweet was panned by a fair few of the 2.5K comments as of this publishing.

The Tweet and all the mockery @ David Hogg. Much fun at the expense of The Survivor.
-
Hogg "new year, new look" Tweet Archived

Hot air balloon crash-lands at Missouri festival, injuring one. (David Hogg survived).

Kansas City Fox News: Hot air balloon crash-lands into a crowd at a Missouri festival, injuring one.

Festivities at a hot air balloon festival in Missouri abruptly turned into fright as one of the balloons botched its landing and crashed into crowd of spectators.

A young girl suffered minor injuries after the balloon crashed through some tree limbs and struck spectators at the Hannibal Bicentennial Celebration on Saturday evening.

An “experienced balloonist” was attempting to land when the hot air balloon grazed a tree, tipping the basket, the event committee told CNN affiliate KHQA.

“Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, and the event continued,” the committee said in a statement.

Teh Shopping

A couple interesting accounts of shopping that I've read. Phil writes about a day holiday shopping. Like Phil, I avoid malls like the plague. I try to avoid the busier shopping hours too, when I can. It was four weeks ago when I had had my fill of Christmas music and commercials.

Today was pretty tolerable for what I needed to get done. I was "given the choice" to either go with, or not, to one of the local, busier malls by Mrs D. She knows the answer before she asks. I had to get to a local hardware store and, ugh, Wal Mart. I drop Mrs D. in the land of the Shopping Dead, wishing her luck. She'll be there til closing, with her sister.

Wal Mart. Busy but not packed. Got there around 3PM, knew what I wanted, got it, got out by 3:30. Needed a furnace filter. They were out of the one I like, so I had to go up to the next level which was a few more dollars. Not a big deal. I couldn't find something else I was looking for so quit that. Then remembered I did have a list with me and went back to the other end of the store to get something I'd forgotten when I started out there. And you know where this is going. Got to the other end of the store when I remembered something else, not on the list, that was where I'd just been, so back across the box again. Again, not a big deal. Inside stores I navigate through the least-occupied aisles. Or try to, and that helps. Headed for self-checkout, paid cash, gone. Done.

Then, to a local hardware store, not a chain big-box. Overheard a conversation of someone unhappy with the mix of their paint color. That would be the least of my worries. Oh, but the hardware store had the Christmas Muzak on. Haven't heard enough yet. Able to get in and out in fifteen. I survived.

It's so easy paying cash at checkout. For those of you ahead of us who pay by any type of card, why don't you know by now which kind of card it is; debit or credit? And why do you waste the time of those waiting behind you in not knowing which button to press? You have a 50-50 chance of getting it right. Just fucking press one of the buttons. If it doesn't accept the charge - then PRESS the OTHER button. WTF? It can't be the FIRST TIME you're using that card. Depending on the card-reader and card type, a credit card may be debit or credit. Take a guess, make it fast, enough with the deer-in-the-headlights-look when you get the "charge-declined" beep. JUST PRESS THE OTHER FUCKING BUTTON if this happens.

I can't complain about running errands today. It can always be worse.