A New (Shopping) Day
The day after Christmas is always a good day for retailers because of the wonder of exchanges. People go back out into the consumer chaos after a single day’s respite and prepare to spend even more money. To be honest they’re not really planning on spending money - they’re planning on exchanging a gift for something of comparable value. How often does that happen, though?
You get a shirt that’s, well, hideous, so you decide to take it back to the store. It cost $53 so you figure you can find a shirt that you like for the same price. You look around and you manage to find something that’s more your style without much trouble. The only problem is that it’s $60. Seven bucks isn’t a big deal, so you get the new shirt.
Or let’s say it happens a little differently. You find a shirt you want but it only costs $49. Does the store give you four dollars in cash? Nah - but they’ll give you store credit. Now, you’re not going to argue over four dollars so you get the shirt and take the little credit voucher and assure yourself that you’ll use it when you come back next week to get some pants. You don’t end up getting those pants and by the time you do wander back into the store you’ve completely forgotten about the voucher.
Multiply that a couple of million times and, all of a sudden, businesses are looking at a nice little end-of-year bonus.
Sphere It