Last Saturday before Christmas expected to be super

Chicago--As the holiday shopping season gets an earlier start each year, retail sales in the month of November have begun to catch up with December in percentage of overall sales.

But analytics firm ShopperTrak predicts that this year, the last Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 20), also called “Super Saturday,” will edge out Black Friday as the busiest shopping day of the year.

Thanksgiving Day shopping has played a significant part in this shift, ShopperTrak said, as more stores have announced that they will open on turkey day. This is pulling more customers away from shopping the following day. ShopperTrak Founder Bill Martin said, “Our numbers show over the last three years that Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) sales are growing at a pretty rapid pace. It’s leaching sales from Black Friday.”

Along with a bigger push for shopping as soon as the last bite of turkey is gone, the lateness of Black Friday this year also might contribute to lower total sales that day.

Thanksgiving weekend closes out the month of November, and ShopperTrak believes that many shoppers already will be well into their holiday shopping by that time. “Early promotions and more days to shop between Halloween and Black Friday will lead to earlier spending,” Martin said. “Retailers are anxious to get to the wallet before the money is gone.”

Still, Black Friday is expected to remain the No. 2 sales day this holiday season, followed by the second-to-last Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 13), the Monday before Christmas (Dec. 22), and then the Friday before Black Friday (Nov. 21).

With Christmas Day falling on a Thursday this year as well, Dec. 26 also is expected to see higher foot traffic, though not necessarily sales. In fact, the day after Christmas is expected to fall behind only Super Saturday in terms of foot traffic, as consumers likely will extend the holiday to create a long weekend and take advantage of the post-Christmas sales.