KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Some retailers are bringing back Black Friday prices on Monday for what they claim is another big online spending day.
Internet tracking service Com Score claims that last year, the second Monday in December was the third-highest online spending day for the entire year. That’s why retailers call it Green Monday. It’s when consumers spend their cash.
Walmart says it’s bringing back ten popular deals from Black Friday on Walmart.com for Monday only. Walmart says “Green Monday” has been among its best sales days for two years running.
But one economist says consumers may be growing weary of all these shopping events including Gray Thursday for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, even charitable Giving Tuesday.
Chris Kuehl says prices aren’t expected to go much lower because retailers planned for a smaller holiday season. He says the real bargains will come after the holidays.
“You even have people now who are quite deliberately waiting to do their Christmas shopping and giving until after Christmas itself,” said Kuehl, an economist with Armada Corporate Intelligence. “They simply wait for the really big sales and say well it’s Christmas in our hearts, even though it’s the middle of January.”
Kuehl expects seasonal spending to be about 2 or 3 percent higher than last year. Not enough to provide a big boost to the economy. Many of the sales from now until Christmas will be targeted to men, who are notorious last minute shoppers.
With the exception of some of Walmart’s online deals, discounts today aren’t expected to be as good as over the Thanksgiving weekend. And Kuehl believes if retail inventory holds up, last minute shoppers should be able to save even more if they wait a day or two before Christmas.
