Ok, so for this week's blog topic I have: "How has the housing crisis affected home fashion retail." I honestly have no clue as to what exactly is reffered to as the housing crisis. What housing crisis, I do not know exactly what is meant by that. And so as not to just create a purely fluffed blog, about something I really have no clue about I am rather just going to blog about my thoughts on Black Friday.

With the Thanksgiving Holiday fastly approaching I feel that it is somewhat appropriate as to how it relates to the merchandising industry. First off what exactly is Black Friday? Well, according to investorwords.com is "the day after Thanksgiving in which retailers make enough sales to put themselves "into the black ink." To put things simply, Black Friday is the day of shopping after Thanksgiving, that people generally go out for Christmas gifts. It in the past seems to have been a real merchandising booster. The following are some statistics from Black Friday of 2007:

"Consumers spent an average of $347.44*, down 3.5 percent from last year, but still up an incredibly strong 14.8 percent from 2005. Retailers made up for the lower average expenditure with increased traffic…Black Friday was marked with retailers opening their doors earlier than ever, with some choosing to start their sales as early as midnight. This strategy appeared to pay off as 14.3 percent of consumers were out shopping before 4:00 AM, compared to 12.4 percent last year.
Men once again proved to be the better Black Friday customer. With a greater emphasis on door-buster specials in the consumer electronics category, men outspent women $393.63 to $303.95.
The most popular items purchased were clothing or clothing accessories (46.8%) as well as books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (41.7%). Other purchases this weekend included consumer electronics (35.7%), toys (28.2%), and gift cards (21.0%)."

*http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/11/26/statistics-black-friday-weekend-traffic-up-48-percent-as-consumers-shop-for-smaller-ticket-items/

With the economy the way it is right now, there is no telling as of yet just how the sales of Black Friday will turn out for this year. However, some predictions have been made:

"We can't stress enough that to get the best deals on Black Friday or any other day of the year, you have to check online first. At GottaDeal.com we post hundreds of new online deals each week and our forum members post even more every day on the message boards. On Black Friday @ GottaDeal.com, we'll have a continuously updated list of Black Friday ad items that can be purchased online at Black Friday ad prices. Look for this list in mid-November. We urge our visitors to order as many ad items as possible online before leaving the house. It'll save you time, hassle and space in your trunk. We do expect online retailers to continue to offer amazing deals this quarter as well as they compete with the brick and mortar retailers. Expect big sales and online-only coupons from retailers such as Amazon.com, Overstock.com, RedTag.com, SmartBargains.com, DeepDiscount.com, ShoeBuy.com and many, many others. And to keep track of these deals, just bookmark our home page at GottaDeal.com where we'll keep you updated on the latest deals throughout the day, every day of the year."

This information came from:http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/BlackFridayPredictions

This is an EXCELLENT site for any and all things related to Black Friday, I simply just could not share all of it with you, so I seriously urge that if you are in any way interested for even your own shopping purposes that you definately go check this site out!

I personally think that there are plentiy of problems within apparel retailing that the average person, and consumer are not fully, if even at all aware of.

First off there could be serious economic issues presssing down on a retailing company. The economy is everything, if not a large chunk of it. It is all about money, how it is spent, if at all, is there any money to spend and this all relates to companies in general but also to apparel retailing firms. Business is highly affected during periods of recession, such as is the approaching case. There is no need to freak out and try to overcompensate for it though because, that is exactly what economies do, they are ever fluxuating, and anyone who has ever had a basic course in economics knowns this fact. This only means that most people do not have the money to go out and purchase items from apparel retailers. How does this affect retailers? It affects retailers of appareal goods, just the same as every other company and business out there. You have to deal with the situation as best you can, and work through it just like everyone else has to do. Some times this even means that certain companies have to close down due to a lack of financial resources. This is probably perhaps the most serioous of issues an apparel company has to ever encounter and deal with.

Aside from economic issues a company could be experiencing internal conflicts. Whether it be with management, owners, shareholders, or anything of that nature. For whatever the reason, they are butting heads, and there is a conflict in the direction of the company. This to greatly affects how an apparel company will either survive or die.These unforseen problems can occur at one of these various stages.

Other problems may be induced from unforseen exspences, issues, or areas or concern that will determine the stability of that company. Challenges are unavoidable and every company including apparel will at one point or another face them on their journey to success.

Picture Chart:http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_02/ict/u-japan_en/images/r_process/new_r_i01chart.gif