Black Friday – Shoppers Looking For Value
As is my usual tradition, I woke at O’Dark-Thirty on Friday morning, and ventured out to the stores to participate in the retail phenomenon known as Black Friday. My first stop was Wal Mart, who I considered to have the most “deals”. I was half expecting the line to be smaller than previous years and was surprised to see just how many people ventured out this year. The line was big, and the registers were ringing. As I perused the aisles, and filled my own carriage with DVD’s, P.J.’s for the kids, and a few Wii video games, I made it a point to look at the behavior of other shoppers.
I did not see a massive run any any particular product, and noted that big ticket items were in the hands of fewer people. What I saw were carriages full of kitchen goods, DVD’s, and smaller toys. Last year people were buying DVD players as well as movies. this year it was more about the movies.
After checking out, we ventured to Target, where there was more of the same. Shoppers looking for value. In previous years, your only chance of getting a “door Buster” special was to be in front of the line at the first store you visited. Any thought of getting the special pricing at subsequent stores was out of the question. This year, I ran into specials at each store I visited. By far, Target and Wal Mart were the busiest.
By the time I got to Best Buy, the store was comfortable. There was no wait, and plenty of inventory. I made a few selections, and waited only 2 minutes in line. Last year, I spent over an hour in line! I inquired as to how busy they were, and they said busy, but nowhere near previous years. the same held true for Circuit City, and Staples, where at 11:00 AM I was able to pick up three 8GB thumb drives for $12 each. There were at least 40 more in the bin, which by 11:00 AM last year would have been gone by 6:00 AM.
What I observed was that consumers were seeking value gifts rather than luxury. While I would consider DVD’s more of a luxury, the value represented could not be beat. DVD’s could be had from $2 and up, and the titles were all decent. Blu Ray (the quality of Blu ray is great by the way) will have to wait a bit longer to become mainstream. Electronics gear, including satellite radio was not a huge seller in my opinion. Consumers were buying mixers, can openers, and the types of items they will use every day. Any big ticket items like televisions seemed to be a “family decision” (foregoing other gifts) rather than simply a gift for dad.
We will have to wait for the numbers, but I predict that Wal Mart will have very positive year over year results. Target will be in line, and Electronics stores will have bad news regarding sales. What I also predict is that some retailers will have continued sales throughout the season in an effort to boost the bottom line. I think we will see a second, and perhaps a third wave of deals in store flyers, which will include new specials not originally planned.
In my opinion, Black Friday was a mixed bag of the desire by consumers to have a good holiday, with the caution that money is tight. People are willing to spend money, but they are not spending as much. For satellite radio watchers, this may mean the lowest retail additions since 2003, even with three free months of service.
Position – Long Sirius XM, No Position Wal Mart, Target, Staples, Circuit City
Hola. I’m back from Brazil. Don’t be jealous, it rained EVERY single day I was there. But I still had fun. Although it turned out my ex girlfriend LIED about her illness to get me to visit her. Can you say Bee-yatch? Women huh? Can’t help but love em.
Anyway…I see we dipped below 15 cents briefly. Yikes.
And no new news on any financing? Oh well…I wasn’t expecting any miracles. . But SOME news would have been good.
But you’ll hear no more infamous “rants” from moi. I’m a changed man. My tall leggy Brazillian ex’s behavior not withstanding…I see now the futility of investing too much faith in external things anymore.
Anything exciting happen while I was away? Probably not.
I guess it’s a 2 and a half week wait until the December 18th shareholders meeting before we learn anything new.
I’m gonna listen to the Sirius Buzz radio shows that I missed tho.
Peace.
Welcome back frigginregan!
Those shoppers at that Walmart that trampled the worker at the door to death on black friday were racing to the satellite radios……
Welcome back friggin…
You diddn’t miss much action..just lots of siri drama in pps.
The saga continues as we near dec 18th.
Tyler –
Please buy some shares down at .20 cents so you can be a little more positive this holiday season. You went from overly optimistic to having a depressing point of view. JK !
But thanks for the breakdown of what you saw at the retailers. I’m going to visit some in the coming week and report what I see with satellite radio.
I was at best buy yesterday in Paramus NJ. The shelves were full of SIRI and XM equipment. It looked as if they hadn’t sold anything. I asked the salesmen if they were selling any SIRI and XM stuff and they said that they had sold a lot. I asked why the shelves were so full then, and they said that the shelves were just restocked.
I guess we’ll find out the true holiday sales soon enough.
Friggin…
Welcome back, nothing really positive that would move the stock at this point.
As you said, we just have to wait for the stockholders meeting to see if any progress has been made by mangement.
vaporgold
Any other reports on Sirius/xm sales this black weekend? Going to BB later and will do some investigation here on LI
Well….I DID find out something HUGE happened while I was away.
My beloved NY JETS kicked the Titan’s undefeated ASS!
Wooooo Hooooo!
Lol.
I missed the drop to .14 cents….but if the stock drops to .15 cents again, I WILL buy a limit of $500 to $1000 more and thats it.
Gary Jon…
I spoke with my neighbor for a minute this morning as he was leaving for work,he is a regional guy for Best Buys in So Cal.
I did not ask him specifically about SiriusXM, but sales in general. he said they were OK. not great, but not bad either.
For what it is worth
vaporgold
The reason that the radios aren’t selling is because virtually nobody under the age of 30 listens to radio anymore. I know this first hand, because I hang out with this crowd. When I mention satellite radio, they show ZERO interest. Another thing I notice is that nobody in this demographic cares about sound quality. I play my radio through my 2 channel stereo when in the house. When I mention that I invested $3000.00 in the entire system (including eqipment rack, cables and speaker stands), these people of whom I speak look at me like I’m some kind of lunatic! Also, non of them buy cd’s. They want their music cheap, convenient, and on anything other than the radio. It’s all about I-pods, portable discman players, or horrible little boomboxes. Of course, the computer is the hub of everything.
I’m a radio guy from way back; always loved the spontaneity and unpredictability of radio. It is sad to observe the demise of quality and good taste. It is astounding to me to realise that people only care about what is convenient, trendy, and the latest and greatest thing.
The explosion of technology, along with the influence of advertising and the manipulative skills of the media have created a generation that is obsessed with cell phones, I-pods, and every other gadget and gizmo – that the powers that be try to convince them that they can’t live without. They buy into it lock, stock and barrel, of course.
I listen to satellite radio and think that, although not perfect, it is so much better than terrestrial radio. It upsets me to think that management isn’t commited to the subscribers, and to making the service the best it can possibly be. I think it should be their obligation. Their duty. I will continue listening, undeterred, to my music on my really good but hardly extravagant 2 channel stereo. I will continue to listen to Sirius/XM, providing they stay in business.
I will NOT try to convince the younger people that I know to give satellite radio a chance; they have convinced me that they just don’t care. I will never convince them that sound quality makes listening so much more pleasurable. They don’t care about that either.
Radio just isn’t cool anymore. It isn’t the “hot” thing. To think that the merger was delayed for 17 months because they thought satellite radio was going to be such a threat to the competition, all I can say is UNBELIEVABLE !!! Our government is just so pathetic, and now Sirius/XM is paying the price and licking it’s wounds as a result of the damage inflicted by the merger fiasco. I just don’t know if satellite radio can survive the reprehensible behavior of our government, along with the ignorance and apathy of the American public. Sirius/Xm needs to change peoples perception of radio. In todays culture, that may be a monumental task!
Steve…
Great Post!
That is a huge demographic group that does lead the way in consumer spending you are talking about.
If the young people do not have any interest in radio that will not play well for SiriusXM now or in the future.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, I saw the same thing with the cell phones and ipods.All my nephews and nieces who were not talking on their cell phones this last Thanksgivng, were texing,listening to ipods, or on the computer, No radio.
Good points you bring up, If SirusXM wants those consumers they are going to have to figure out how to market to them.
It may be a monumental task to try and make Sat radio cool.
How do we do that?
imho
vaporgold
Just back from BB and they actually stated the best receiver that sold this weekend was the silver XM one as it had a huge discount–They said they were moving inventory–I do think sat sales will be better then expected as the discount given on the receivers will move them–I was suprised that the XM unit sold more then the sirius holiday one with 3 months free best of both subscription
Goodbye November.
Hello December. Bring me some giddy “UP” in the share price please!!!
Thinking about a nice Christmas present of course.
Tyler thank you again for your efforts.
Friggenregan. Good to see your friend is ok. At least I guess they are ok.
I’m giving you a plus or minus of 5 before your next rant. lol.
Hope. Spent two days in Laughlin. Contributed to your states tax revenue. LOL. Hope your doing well. Get it. Hope your……oh never mind.
COS I called that move in Ford. I sold out to early. But I did call it.
So what are peoples thoughts on Sirius share price going forward?????
Cause car makers will get a short term fix, and then a longer one when Obama takes over.
Steve. That was a great post. Brandon needs to come up with something quick to get the under 29 crowd, few of whom have ever heard of satellite radio, on board.
I say, do like they did with Howard. Get a well known personality on board that the U29 crowd loves and sign them up.
Who you ask. How do I know. My kids would know. One thing I do know. The U-29 crowd loves comedy. Get someone famous on board that they love.
Vapor. Let’s get this .20 price up and now amigo. I got things I need to do. If they can keep sticking it to the shorts like they did with Citi, we will go higher.
Fuck the shorts. Fuck the naked shorts sellers. Fuck banning the up tick rule.
Go all Sirius fans and shareholders. And Mel, if you don’t get your head out of your ass soon, you will be added to the line above.
Go December. Go Sirius. Go SiriusBuzz writers.
Out!
Steve,
I agree with your comments 100%. However, everyone gets older and it gets tiring to always swim upstream. The effort to keep up with play lists, finding the latest, free download areas, buying cd’s and ripping to mp3’s, etc… eventually gets old… it did for me anyway.
Real life eventually gets in the way and tradeoffs in time have to be made. Eventually that 30-something gets a family and a real job where they can afford things…I submit that after a time, a lot of these under 30 folks will find it nice to simply get in their car, turn on their Satellite Radio and have a bunch of easily accessible content to choose from.
I love 50’s, 60’s, classic rock, bluegrass, old alternative, motown, etc.. I can’t think of a more painless way to access that content than via my Sirius subscription. All 20 presets on my starplayer are filled up and I have a hard time just settling down and listening to one specific channel for any length of time.
Well anyway.. time will tell, but I’m betting Sirius will come out ok. Next couple of months are going to be interesting. If Sirius can survive and stay on it’s feet, look for the below 30 something demographic to start to change their listening habits and maybe more into Satellite radio… As a shareholder, I certainly hope so 🙂
SoCal
Your donation in Laughlin surely will help continue to lower our property taxes. Thanks again and hope you had nice holiday in spite of your donation to the economy of Nevada in the casinos.
who are these lunatics???
Hey Hope.
Had never seen that site. They appear very serious.
WTF. Can’t catch a break I guess.
Hopefully they will get their issues resolved.
Hey, Hope/Social
Yeah, I have seen this site before, hmmm, FMQB?
I ran a quick search on it, smells of NAB propaganda.
FMQB
News Director – Joey Odorisio
Yeah!!! Lets all cancel our subs on the 17th!!
Man, they just wont quit until SAT/RAD is dead, this is getting ridiculous!! Mel we need a lawsuit against the liberal/media machine!!! To bad Mel is just trying to keep the ship afloat at this time. 🙁
SoCal..Hope..Tyler Friggin..& everyone
Hope you and everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
I agree it is time for the pps to at least get back up to its value.
I heard some people were put off over the channel changes,It did not effect me to much so it was not a big deal. Maybe it is,or maybe it is just to easy to put up blogs and bitch about everything today.
We would never bitch about SiriusXM here..would we?
On the 17th we need to activate all the Xmas sat radios presents we are giving for Xmas day!!
Ok SoCal..let’s gets the pps back up
vaporgold
Just visited that siriuslyscrewed site. Wonder what age demographic the majority of the people who support that site are part of? I guess I can see getting worked up about losing your favorite channel. But really…there is soooo much other great content. Expand your tastes a little. There is some great music out there that can still make a point without having being laced with violence and obscene language. Still… for those that are upset, I hope you get your channels back.. sooner rather than later 🙂
oh.. just to keep it on topic of this thread. Preliminary “black Friday” returns show consumers spent about 300 million more this year than last year. Hopefully that translated into some good results for Sirius as well.
Looks like Starplayr 0.0.1 has been released!!!
It would be nice to see the pps stay in the green, if the markets close down today.
I agree with Otone. Yes…younger kids tend to carry ipods when they walk around. But radio still is cool among the young and hip in cars. And most of the young and hip I know who drive have or want Sat Radio in their cars.
I think Mel can still do MUCH to make SiriusXM a cooler presence online and on cell phones….and there is no doubt in my mind that Sat Radio can out cool the likes of Slacker and Pandora with the right marketing. But the car is still king for Sat radio and will continue to be so.
Everytime I see Mtv’s pimp my ride, Sat Radio is mentioned as part of the insanely cool sound systems. Radio is still viable. I love the control of my ipod and have over 4,000 songs on it. But I also have found I have less and less time to keep up with updates and variety. Thats where radio rules. It’s just nice to have that kind of spontaneity in music…especially while driving. When I hear a cool new song or artist, I can later download their music. This is a much better and seamless system in my mind and others agree. Not to mention all the other cool content.
I am the webmaster of SiriuslyScrewed. For starters we are not associated with in any way, shape or form the NAB, Clear Channel or any other enterprise or organization. We are a group of satellite radio customers. Associating us with such groups is only a means to try and marginalize us.
Secondly, it is our desire to have the medium returned to it’s prior and superior incarnation. As consumers it is our right to show our disdain for this “new experience” how we see fit. We provide consumers the ability to contact SiriusXM and voice their concerns. If our concerns are ignored or treated as less than serious we have the right to show the company the might of the consumer.
Hey Mark,
I understand a lot of subs are not happy with the channel merging. In my opinion, it took some getting use to, but there is more variety, and I did not run into any censorship on my channels.
As far as asking everyone to cancel there subs on the 17th. I think that is to extreme, why not set up a poll, and have everyone put in their requests for the channels they want back. Then submit it to management.
I looked for such a poll on your site, maybe I missed it? I have found in my weekly emails from XM, that you can submit your requests and ideas, if you like.
Well good luck with your website, and if you are not happy with the service, then cancel it.
Mark,
I support your right to exercise your rights to bring attention to your issues and hopefully get Sirius to rectify the situation.
I do not in any way support the way you are going about doing it.
Having said that, I listened to Lithium tonight and after about 5 songs, a Seven Mary Three song came on which contained the word “fuck” and they did in fact censor it.
I supported your cause by sending an e-mail to Sirius. Very strongly worded. I won’t be cancelling my subscription though. Sorry. For me, too much other great content.
You are obviously going to do what you feel is right, but I’d suggest you trying a different tactic and taking a different tone. I doubt you’d be doing that… Tell you what though. I’m guessing Sirius will resolve the situation. Once that is done, will you be starting up another blog? Someting like SiriusContentKicksFuckingAss.com? you know… Ask all those non-subscribers to sign up for Sirius to receive all that “superior” content you mentioned? Tis only fair ya?