8 in 10 Americans Will Be Shopping For Deals This Weekend as Inflation Continues to Hit Wallets

Retailers are set to have a strong Thanksgiving holiday weekend as resilient consumers battered by inflation aim to find ways to keep the season festive.

According to Deloitte’s 2022 Black Friday Cyber Monday Survey, American consumers are expected to spend an average of $500 during this shopping period, up 12% from last year.

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Deloitte attributes this increase to consumers wishing to take advantage of deals and promotions as inflation persists. The survey found that eight in 10 consumers will shop during Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, up from 71% in 2021, and will spend 50% of their holiday budgets. Younger generations are driving the charge, the company said, with 86% of Gen Z and 89% of Millennials planning to spend during this timeframe.

And spending is set to increase across income groups, Deloitte found. Lower-income earners, those making less $50,000 per year, plan to increase their spending the most over the five-day period, up 19% year-over-year to $320. In comparison, higher-income earners, those making more than $100,000 per year, plan to increase their spending by 4% to $650.

“With half of holiday budgets expected to be spent over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, it’s a critical period for retailers,” Rod Sides, global leader of Deloitte Insights, said in a statement. “Consumers from every income level are looking to maximize their holiday budgets, therefore seeing value in the promotions set to last throughout the week.”

This new data comes days after the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics released a joint survey which showed an estimated 166.3 million Americans are planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year. This figure is almost 8 million more people than last year and is the highest estimate since NRF began tracking this data in 2017.

According to the survey, more than two-thirds (69%) of holiday shoppers plan to shop during Thanksgiving weekend this year. The top reasons consumers plan to shop are because the deals are too good to pass up (59%), because of tradition (27%) or because it is something to do (22%) over the holiday.

Black Friday continues to be the most popular day to shop, with 69% (114.9 million) planning to shop then, followed by 38% (63.9 million) on Cyber Monday. Among the 114.9 million Black Friday shoppers, 67% say they expect to head to stores, up from 64% in 2021.

“While there is much speculation about inflation’s impact on consumer behavior, our data tells us that this Thanksgiving holiday weekend will see robust store traffic with a record number of shoppers taking advantage of value pricing,” NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. “We are optimistic that retail sales will remain strong in the weeks ahead, and retailers are ready to meet consumers however they want to shop with great products at prices they want to pay.”

NRF forecast earlier this month that holiday sales during November and December will grow between 6% and 8% over 2021 to between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. Last year’s holiday sales grew 13.5% over 2020 and totaled $889.3 billion, shattering previous records. Holiday retail sales have averaged an increase of 4.9% over the past 10 years, with pandemic spending in recent years accounting for considerable gains.

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