Heavier Shopping in First Two Weekends of November

With more retailers releasing data for November, it’s more clear that Christmas shopping is moving earlier in the month. The pre-Thanksgiving sales, mainly on the Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, had some impact. Store openings on Black Friday Eve, also known as Thanksgiving, might have been important to some shoppers, but remained tiny compared any other shopping day. 

It is the first two weekends of November that are getting the most buzz. Sales those weekends drew shoppers away from the Saturday and Sunday of Black Friday weekend, and that seems to be the big new trend this year. This is also something I observed in traffic patterns locally. The holiday shopping season is not over yet, and retail analysts are hoping for a strong December to make up for the shortfall in November.