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82% of US consumers say they intend to shop during Black Friday & Cyber Monday · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:10
You are listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
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I'm your host Jimmy Hinton.
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Welcome to Black Friday.
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And speaking of Black Friday, we're going to talk about U.S.
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consumer spending.
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I thought this would be an interesting topic.
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Given the fact that a lot of Americans love their Black Friday.
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Me, of course, not being one of them.
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I'm just not the biggest fan of well, I don't like shopping in general, but I don't like crowds.
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I don't like trying to fight to get items.
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And I don't like the scammy deals.
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A lot of a lot of people mark up their prices and then they drop them back down, and they're like, oh, 40% off.
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Well, yeah, you you bumped it up 40%, then knocked it off to make it look like it's a 40% off sale.
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So anyway, I'm just not the biggest fan, and I don't I'm not a big purchaser.
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I don't buy a lot of things.
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I'd rather spend time in the woods and uh just hike for free.
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But that's me.
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And no judgment on people who do like Black Friday.
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It does provide a lot of good opportunities for people if uh if you like to shop, and that's just where we're at.
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So Black Friday sales.
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We are breaking numbers, breaking records.
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Black Friday, I'm reading here from let's see, resource resourcera.
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Black Friday is one of the biggest sales during the holiday season in the USA.
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Holiday spending in the US is projected to surpass the one trillion with a T one trillion dollar mark for the first time in 2025.
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The Black Friday sale is expected to reach 11.7 billion dollars this year, marking a major jump from last year.
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This year's Black Friday, consumer shopping behavior will be impacted due to the import tariffs, as 22% of US shoppers plan to do their Black Friday and holiday shopping sooner due to the price rise.
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So I don't know how much sooner this article was posted on November 20th, and um boy oh boy, I don't know how much sooner than Black Friday people could have been doing their shopping when they wrote this article.
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But anyway, here we are.
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But here's the point.
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The spending is way up.
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Uh read a little bit more of this article.
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Let's learn more about Black Friday spending, top motivators for consumers to shop during the sale season, usage of AI tools for the holiday season shopping, and the impacts of import tariffs on consumers' shopping behavior.
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Here's some key statistics in 2025 this year.
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Online sales for Black Friday will cross the 11.7 billion dollar range in this year.
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Total online sales for the Thanksgiving week surpassed 41.1 billion dollars in 2024.
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So last year.
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Compared to 2024.
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78% of US shoppers are driven to buy during Black Friday because of the deals.
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That's why I don't go, folks.
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78% of U.S.
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shoppers are driven to buy during Black Friday.
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That's 80% of shoppers shop on Black Friday.
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No, thank you.
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No, thanks.
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Um, I just don't like fighting crowds.
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32% of Americans plan to reduce their Black Friday spending due to import tariffs.
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So kind of interesting here.
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When I'm looking at the projected data, it doesn't really reflect that.
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If we look at the sales, it's projected online sales in 2024 on Black Friday were 10.8 billion.
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Online sales are projected for this Black Friday to be 11.7 billion.
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Just for reference, in 2017, it was 5 billion.
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So let's go through the years because this is really fascinating.
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Just keeps going up and up and up.
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2017, 5 billion.
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2018, 6.2 billion.
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2019, 7.4 billion.
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2020, 9.3 billion.
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9.03.
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Then it went down just slightly in 2021, just under 9 billion.
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Hovered around 9 billion in 2022.
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2023, 9.8 billion.
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2024, 10.8 billion.
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And this year it jumps by a whole billion to 11.7 billion.
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That's a lot of spending, folks.
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That's just online.
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And that's just on Black Friday.
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So total Black Friday sales worldwide over the years.
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In 2024, global Black Friday online sales reached 74.4 billion, marking a 4.94, so virtually a 5% increase from 70.9 billion the previous year in 2023.
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So these numbers keep going up and up and up.
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2023, there was almost a 9% increase from the year before, 2024, a 5% increase.
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And this year it's projected to be 5 to 8% increase over last year.
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So it's interesting because the projections are on the one hand, people are people are saying that they're going to spend less.
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And where people stand on personal budgets.
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But I think it's fascinating from an economic standpoint because the one thing that we hear over and over is how bad the economy is.
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We keep hearing this.
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The economy is in the tank.
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It's bad.
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It's you know, nobody's spending.
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People are terrified.
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The tariffs have absolutely wrecked our economy.
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Trump has wrecked the economy.
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And we hear a lot of those headlines.
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But when we look at the numbers, people are spending.
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Now what they do is if inflation is um if inflation is running a little bit hot, they'll they'll keep interest rates high to try to discourage people from spending so much.
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Um if the economy is slowing down, what they'll do is uh reduce interest rates to try to stimulate the economic growth.
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So we're kind of in this weird place, you know.
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Like the economy is not bad, but it's not great.
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It's just kind of hanging out, uh, waiting to do its thing.
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And um consumer spending is really high.
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Uh I'm I'm looking again at these numbers and at these charts.
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I will link to this in the show notes, and people are spending.
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They're shopping, spending, buying, and I don't know what this means because my goodness, if you look at other areas, there are some warning signs.
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And one of those is in the the car sector, the automobile sector, the number of repossessions is increasing.
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So cars are being repossessed at higher numbers.
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Um, and I think part of that is because people are overextending themselves.
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The average car payment is over 700.
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That's for one car payment.
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Interest rates are high still.
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And people are just they're over-leveraged, they're overextended.
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And people keep buying brand new cars.
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And it's just not a good thing.
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If you don't have the money, and if it's going to strap you super tight, it's just not economically a good idea.
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So a lot of people are getting their cars repossessed.
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And that's definitely gonna have an impact.
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This is a recent thing, so that's gonna have an impact on December's numbers.
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I have a feeling.
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So I don't know if people just want to get it out of their system one one last time.
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But I don't think.
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I think that people are just accustomed to spending.
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And I think this could be a sign that the economy is not quite as bad as what people think it is.
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Because people say that they're strapped.
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But the spending sure hasn't slowed down.
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And that means people have jobs.
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Right?
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Because typically the people making these big purchases to the tune of 11.
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Typically, those people are gonna have jobs.
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And they're gonna have money.
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Maybe not a lot of money, but they're definitely spending like they have it.
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So where do people shop?
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The top destinations for shopping are department stores and e-commerce platforms.
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Uh 42% make purchases from these locations.
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About 40% of U.S.
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shoppers purchase from grocery stores and supermarkets during the Thanksgiving weekend.
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37% consider buying from clothing and accessory stores.
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Discount stores, believe it or not, rank last.
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And they're ranked at 32% of Americans who shop from discount stores.
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So in 2025, this year, around 21% of consumers in the U.S.
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plan to do their Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.
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47% plan to start their holiday shopping before November.
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And only 3% plan to make purchases a week before Christmas.
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Count me in that 3%.
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I am definitely a last minute person.
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I wait until the very last minute.
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Because procrastination is king.
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I like to wait till the last minute.
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And apparently only 3% of Americans are in that category.
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So good for you guys who all plan.
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That's a good thing.
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So the top motivators to shop during Black Friday.
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78% of U.S.
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shoppers get motivated by discounts and deals.
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So that'd be the vast majority of people.
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37% stated that the need for specific products is the main reason to shop during the same period.
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The one time that I did a Black Friday shop, literally once in my entire life.
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One time I shopped on Black Friday.
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Once I just had zero interest.
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And uh that's personal preference, nothing more, nothing less.
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But the one time that I did it, it was because I needed a specific product.
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I knew exactly what I was looking for.
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I knew what the deal was.
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I had seen the discount.
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I knew what it was, and that's what I went for.
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It's about 37% of Americans say that they go for a specific need.
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Specific products.
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78% are just motivated by the discounts and deals.
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They just want to shop around and see what deals are out there.
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Which is scary.
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The phrase that I use for my wife.
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You ready for this?
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This is how they get you.
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That's how they get you.
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They offer all these great deals.
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You don't have a plan.
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You don't have a set amount that you're gonna spend, and you just go quote unquote window shopping.
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That's how they get you.
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You're gonna come back with way more than what you planned on buying because you didn't have a plan.
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And that's scary.
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The fact that that describes most of the US shoppers, that's a little bit scary to me.
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So I think this could be this is my um my best educated guest.
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I think the bigger part of this is that marketing has just gotten really good.
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The algorithms are crazy good at finding out what you want.
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I guarantee that most of us are gonna have ads flashing across that it's gonna be in these enticing items that we absolutely are just it's it's like how did they know me?
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How did they know that this is exactly what I want?
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Well, they know because that's how the algorithms are designed.
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They're designed to find out what our potential likes and desires are, and then they start advertising and targeting us specifically based on our shopping habits, based on click-through rates, all that stuff.
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That's all being tracked, and uh our information gets sold all the time, and companies are just getting better and better and better at marketing, and specifically target marketing.
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So the demotivators for the not shop during Black Friday.
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As most discounts are misleading.
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Yep, that's me.
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This literally was written about me.
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At the same time, 42% say that poor quality products on discount is the biggest demotivator for them for not shopping during Black Friday.
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Yep, I I could go along with that.
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At the top of the list, though, discounts are misleading.
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Man, these are my spirit animals, people.
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Absolutely true.
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Misleading deals.
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Um, well, we're coming up on a break here.
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We'll break this down a little bit more after the break, but people are shopping till they're dropping.
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Shopping has not slowed down, and uh you're gonna find places extremely busy today.
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People are shopping till they're dry.
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On Black Friday.
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Well, Americans are spending, spending, spending.
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And it doesn't seem to slow down.
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And the projections all show that we're going to break records again this Black Friday.
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And what does that mean for the economy?
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Well, it's always hard to tell because sometimes spending is not the only indicator that the economy is doing well.
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Right?
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Because some people just get out of control.
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And they're going to spend regardless.
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And I think a little bit of that is what's going on.
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If I'm going to be completely honest, I think the economy is doing okay.
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There are a lot of different indicators that we have to look at, but uh consumer spending is not the only area that we need to look at.
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But consumers plan they intend to not spend as much money.
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Well, we all know where the road of good intentions leads to, folks.
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Here's another article.
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This is Mass Market Retailers.
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And the article is more consumers plan to shop from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but they intend to spend less.
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Deloitte study fines.
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Alright, so more consumers, we're gonna have a record number of consumers, but they intend to spend less.
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The language is just a little bit funny here because when I say I intend to do something, that means I'm not gonna do it.
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I intend to fill in the blank.
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That's an almost guarantee that I'm not gonna do it.
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Or I don't intend on blah blah blah blah blah, and what that means is I'm gonna do it.
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So the subtitle to this is value continues to be the centerpiece of the holiday season, and Black Friday Cyber Monday promotions are an easy way for shoppers to capture those deals.
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Americans are still gearing up for the biggest shopping week of the year, but they plan to spend a little less doing it.
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According to Deloitte's 2025 Black Friday Cyber Monday survey, consumers expect to spend an average of $622 between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
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A 4% decline from last year, even as participation in the shopping period edges higher.
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So I'm gonna call nonsense.
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The intentions might be well enough.
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You know, we have good intentions of not spending money.
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They're gonna spend the money.
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You watch.
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When the numbers actually come out, we're gonna have a record numbers that are spent.
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It's already projected to be record high numbers.
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82% of respondents said they plan to shop during the five-day event, up slightly from 79% in 2024.
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See what I mean?
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That's a pretty big increase.
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More people shopping.
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But wink wink, we're gonna spend less money.
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The pullback in spending, Deloitte found reflects a mix of cost pressures and caution amid higher cost of living.
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Nearly seven in ten shoppers who plan to spend less cited inflation as the main reason, while 43% pointed to tighter personal finances.
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Consumers are eager to find the best deals to wrap up their holiday shopping, said Natalie Martini, vice chair in U.S.
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retail and consumer product sector leader at Deloitte.
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She went on to say, while we expect shoppers to plan to pull back on spending, we also anticipate strong participation throughout the holiday week, with many planning to blend the convenience of online shopping with the energy of the in-store experience.
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And so here's what I think is going on.
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And I think this is pretty typical.
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This is not just on Black Friday.
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There's a lot of research that points to this.
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So this is not speculation here.
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Dave Ramsey talks about this.
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When you have plastic in hand, there's something psychologically that says it's okay to spend money.
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That when you have cash, every time you spend that cash, and that cash is depleted, psychologically, it creates anxiety.
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It makes you want to spend less.
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At least not until you get your bill.
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But even with the bill, we can excuse that away.
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And we justify getting these high bills because they're like, well, I can pay the minimum.
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Or I can pay the minimum for a couple months, and then I'll pay extra on it.
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But the reality is the interest rates start to attack us.
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You know, when you have a 19% APR, those interest rates really go against you, and that adds up quick.
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Credit card debt in America keeps reaching new and new highs.
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You know, we keep breaking all these records.
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And uh some of these are not so good.
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Here we go.
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Here's an example.
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I just looked it up.
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So I just did a quick search.
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Credit card debt reaches 1.21 trillion dollars in the second quarter.
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Credit card uh 1.21 trillion dollars in credit card debt.
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Credit card balances rose by 27 billion in the second quarter to 1.21 trillion, according to a new report by the New York Fed.
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Here's an ABC News article earlier this month.
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Americans' household debt hits record high, according to report.
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Um, this is not something to brag about.
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Americans' household debt levels, including mortgages, car loans, credit cards, student loans are now at new record high, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Total household debt reached 18.59 trillion dollars from July through September of this year.
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Up by 197 billion from the previous quarter.
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Just before the pandemic recession.
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This is not good, folks.
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I mean, this is not something to brag about.
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So yeah, consumer spending is up, and I think we're gonna reach new records, but so is the debt.
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The debt keeps increasing, the personal debt.
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So that means a lot of people are putting this on credit cards, a lot of people are overspending, overextending, overconsuming, and some point there's gonna be a knock on the door.
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At some point, people are gonna have to start paying this debt back.
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I mean, that is a massive amount of debt.
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Almost 19 trillion dollars in personal debt, household debt.
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That's just household debt.
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That is really hard to wrap our mind around.
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And so we probably should park it on uh Black Friday, but that's not gonna happen.
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People are gonna spend and they're gonna do what they're gonna do.
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So I guess at least they're finding good deals, right?
28:24
Um I mean, I'm not against Black Friday shopping.
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It's a lot of people are buying Christmas presents, and it's not indicative of general shopping habits.
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So what it does is it gives us kind of a snapshot of the impulse of buys that Americans fall prey to.
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And a lot of this is because of marketing.
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You know, marketers are getting better and better, and they really are trying to up the ante on these impulsive buys.
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Look at cell phones as an example.
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I mean, people have to get the newest cell phone, and it has to be you know, a pro phone.
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Uh 12, 13, 1400 phone.
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And as soon as you buy it, it's outdated.
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I mean, the second you buy that phone, it's already outdated, or at least that's how they market it.
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And a lot of people feel like they have to get a new phone every year or two years because their phone is outdated, and it's not gonna work as well, and the battery's starting to go down, and you know, it's it's losing its effectiveness, and so they need to get the newest best cell phone, and then they advertise it and they talk about how they're gonna add all these um, you know, the processing is gonna be so much faster, and it's it's gonna be able to handle anything to throw at it, and the cameras are always gonna be better, and people fall for this.
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I mean, millions of Americans fall for this over and over and over again, and it
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Keeps you locked into perpetual debt.
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So, you know, this is kind of a snapshot, in my opinion.
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Black Friday is a snapshot of how people behave when it comes to impulse.
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Are we impulse buyers, or can we stay away and say, you know what?
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That's great that there are deals out there, but there are going to be other deals.
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There are always going to be good deals.
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And that's kind of where I come from.
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You know, there will always be deals.
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Black Friday.
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It's not like these are one-time deals that you'll never find again.
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In fact, my wife and I bought a crazy ridiculous, insanely nice TV for next to nothing.
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You know why?
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We randomly found a clearance deal.
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The store had bought way too many of these TVs.
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It was exactly the size that we're looking at.
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And we made a vow, like we're never going to spend more than whatever, $300 max on a TV.
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Because it's just, it's it's not a necessity.
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So then we walked in the store.
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We both happened to be in the store together, and we saw this that this deal.
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Not anywhere near Black Friday.
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And my wife was like, This is the exact TV that we're looking for.
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It's like literally the exact size that we've been wanting for a long time.
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And she's like, we're never gonna see this price again.
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And she's probably right about that.
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I mean, it was it was like 80% off or something like that.
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Something crazy.
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So that was one where we had the money in our budget.
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So it's not like we bought it and we're like, hey, we're gonna pay ourselves later.
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We had the money in our budget.
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And so we we have a document, we pulled it up, we put up our budget, and we're like, okay, what do we have available to spend?
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What's our limit?
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What's the most that we would be willing to spend?
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And does it fit within all of these perimeters?
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And then we made the purchase, and we did it guilt-free.
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There was no buyer's remorse.
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And so most Americans don't spend that way.
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And I'm not saying that because we're we're better than anybody, or you know, we have life figured out.
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Uh I'm I'm just saying what the numbers say.
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You know, the studies show that most Americans have a budget, but they don't adhere to it.
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And I'll link to these studies here in the show notes.
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But I guess it's uh it's a little bit of a word of caution.
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And this episode's more of a lighthearted, you know, it's it's it's it's not to pick on Black Friday, and it's not to point out necessarily good or bad things that are going on.
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It's just kind of a lighthearted thing because it's uh, you know, Black Friday is something that most Americans participate in.
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And if we think about this from a couple different angles, I just want to kind of turn over a few stones here.
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And I guess at the end, let people know that you have more options than just going out and blowing all your money on Black Friday.
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You know, the deal of a lifetime isn't always the deal of a lifetime.
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There are other deals.
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Other deals will come along.
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I promise you that.
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You know, some of these deals that are once in a lifetime, that is completely a marketing ploy.
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So limited supply.
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There's a good book.
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I'm actually going to recommend a book here.
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I highly recommend this book.
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The book is by Dr.
33:45
Robert Caldini, and it's called Influence the Psychology of Persuasion.
33:52
And it is absolutely phenomenal.
33:55
It is really, really good.
33:57
And what Dr.
33:58
Caldini did is he he posed for a study, he posed as an intern, and he went out and got a bunch of sales jobs, and he went through the orientation training, and then he quit.
34:11
And it was just to kind of gather inside intel for how do they train people to do sales?
34:18
And what he found is that they're using very, very specific techniques to manipulate people into buying more.
34:27
And he talks about influence.
34:30
How do they influence us?
34:32
What's the psychology of persuasion?
34:34
What is it about us that makes us susceptible to these tactics?
34:40
And I often give the example.
34:42
I'm like, you know, uh, nobody likes the old school style of uh car salesman's.
34:48
You know, the car salesman that you show up on the lot, you're like, yeah, I'm only looking.
34:52
I literally just want to look around.
34:55
I am not buying a car.
34:57
I just want to see what's out there.
34:59
And as soon as you pull in the parking lot, here comes this guy just motoring across the parking lot, and he comes out.
35:05
Hey, buddy, and it's like he's your best friend.
35:08
He's your lost long uh long lost friend who, you know, ends up being your uncle that you never knew you had, kind of thing.
35:18
And then before you know it, you are driving a car off the lot, and you got locked into this deal.
35:27
And then you're mad at yourself, and you're like, I like I promised that I wasn't gonna buy a car.
35:34
I had good intentions of not buying a car.
35:37
And then this guy ends up selling you a car, and you get really ticked off, and you feel sleazy.
35:46
Or like that guy was sleazy.
35:48
You're like, how did this guy how did he do it?
35:51
How did he pull that off?
35:53
I promised I vowed that I would not buy a car.
35:57
And I'm driving home in this car, and then you feel bad.
36:01
You know, like you feel bad if you say no that you don't want to buy the car.
36:06
And everybody asks the same question.
36:09
Everybody who's been in that position, they're like, how was I fooled into buying this car?
36:14
Well, you weren't necessarily fooled per se.
36:16
It's that they were using these these persuasion techniques.
36:21
So Caldini lays them out, and he shows exactly what the human psychology is and why we're susceptible to these kinds of things.
36:30
And then at the end of each chapter, he gives tips, like kind of pro tips on what you can do to overcome it.
36:39
Like, how do you get out of the sleazy sales deals?
36:44
How do you know when somebody is using these specific techniques?
36:48
And it's really fascinating.
36:49
I mean, it is it is just so fantastic, and uh it's equipped me and helped me to to say no more often than not.
36:58
And to not fall prey to this kind of stuff and this kind of marketing.
37:02
He talks about Black Friday.
37:04
In fact, one of the one of the rules is the rules of the rule of scarcity.
37:10
So you make an item scarce.
37:12
Hey, it's Black Friday or or none at all.
37:15
As soon as these are sold out, we'll never again have this product again.
37:20
That's just not true.
37:21
That's called the rule of scarcity.
37:23
You make people think that the product's gonna run out, and that's why people line up around 16 city blocks waiting in line in the morning at Black Friday.
37:33
Well, we're coming up on another break here.
37:35
We will break this apart after the break and talk about what we can do to kind of not fall prey to to this kind of stuff.
37:43
Um, it's okay to shop, but what I don't want is for people to become victims and to overspend and overextend themselves uh to where you're racking up your own debt.
37:54
All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day.
37:57
You can find them on your favorite podcast app.
37:59
Rate the show, share it, and visit AmericaOutloud.news, use the code out loud for 20% off, and hang tight, we'll be right back.
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39:56
As we enter into this Black Friday, uh shop.
40:00
Are expected to increase and the intention to spend to spend less is actually increasing as well.
40:08
So the intention is there to spend less money.
40:11
However, I don't think that that's going to happen.
40:15
And that's based on a lot of different factors.
40:18
But one of those is that 64% of consumers plan to use credit cards or buy now pay later services to help manage their spending.
40:30
People who use that kind of fan financing, the buy now pay later, they're expected to spend about 12% more than the average shopper.
40:40
And that's exactly what I was talking about before the break.
40:43
Ramsey says there are a lot of different studies out there that show that whenever people use the credit card, there's something mentally that takes place, psychologically.
40:55
We tend to spend more money because it's as if the money is uh unlimited.
41:03
It's so easy to just swipe, and we don't think about the amount, and we don't even think that we have to pay it back later.
41:10
That's not what we're thinking about in the moment.
41:12
What we think is I have a product that I want or need, and I have a way to get it.
41:18
So we swipe the card, and sometimes there's like a dose of endorphins that you know hit our brain, and we get that little thrill from the purchase.
41:31
Whereas when we pay with cash, we feel pain.
41:39
Whenever we see that money leave, there's something that viscerally happens to us.
41:47
So the fact that the majority of Americans are using plastic or lay away, things like that, some sort of buy now pay later services.
41:57
That's scary.
41:58
And companies know this.
42:01
And they take they take advantage of people.
42:05
And they re-market things to really get people to fall into these traps.
42:10
That you have to have it.
42:11
You have to have it now.
42:13
Um and I just want to caution people.
42:16
I want us to be careful.
42:18
Most Americans don't follow a budget.
42:21
They have a budget, but the research shows that they don't adhere to that budget.
42:26
They don't stick to that budget.
42:28
So ABC News has an article.
42:31
Uh, this just published this month.
42:34
Americans' household debt hits new record high, according to report.
42:40
This debt includes mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and student loans.
42:47
Our debt is reaching trillions.
42:50
Not reaching, it's already there.
42:52
It reached 18.59 trillion.
42:56
That's household debt here in the United States.
42:59
18.59 trillion dollars from July through September of this year.
43:05
That's an all-time high, never been higher.
43:08
The amount of interest on that is insane.
43:12
Well, add to that, this is Investipedia.
43:16
It says, how many people actually stick to a budget?
43:19
The answer might surprise you.
43:21
Well, I'm not really that surprised.
43:23
86% of people report using a budget regularly, but less than 25% said they stick to their budget.
43:32
Um people don't stick to their budget because of overspending, increased expenses, debt, unrealistic goals, age, income, and race often play into how and whether people budget.
43:46
54% of Americans spend more than four hours a day thinking about their finances.
43:53
That's that's wild to me.
43:56
Over half of Americans spend more than four hours a day thinking about their finances.
44:05
So the article says it's no surprise that consumers consider money management a priority, with more than two-thirds saying they use budgets to get through the month.
44:15
However, research shows that few people actually stick to their budget.
44:23
That's not a surprise to me.
44:26
You know, it it's it's actually it makes sense because we're bombarded every single day that you have to buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend, get these deals, get them now, hurry up while it's hot, you know, don't let this deal go cold.
44:43
And so people fall into that trap, and Black Friday is just another gimmick to really try to rope people in.
44:50
And while it's good for it's good for the vendors, it's not so good for the American people if they're going into debt.
45:00
Now, if you stick to a budget, and that's what I'm going to talk about.
45:03
If you're responsible, you stick to a budget, and you have a number that's an absolute diehard number that you will not spend more than that number, period.
45:14
That is fine.
45:16
Go shop for deals all day long.
45:19
Go shop till you drop.
45:22
You know, there's nothing in the world wrong with that.
45:24
I love I don't love shopping on Black Friday, but I do love shopping.
45:28
I love window shopping especially.
45:31
And the reason I love window shopping is because I typically almost never buy anything.
45:37
So I just like going and looking at things, and at the end of that, I'm usually so overwhelmed that I come back and I'm like, I'm so thankful that I didn't spend money.
45:49
Because like there's some stores that I walk in and I'm like, if I had money with me, I could spend a fortune.
45:58
I could spend an absolute fortune.
46:01
And I actually enjoy going into stores like that.
46:03
Like it's fun to look around, it's fun to daydream and to think about the things that you could have.
46:11
But for me, it's just as fun to say no.
46:14
I love saying no.
46:17
I love coming home to a house where I can just walk outside and smell the fresh air and not have to fill my house up with things.
46:28
I just I I don't I don't like stuff it is.
46:33
It just doesn't bring me joy.
46:36
Other people, it does, and that's not a judgment.
46:39
Other people, they they that's kind of their therapy.
46:43
My wife kind of falls into that category.
46:45
She loves to shop.
46:48
Um, but she budgets, she's very, very responsible.
46:53
So what do we do?
46:54
What do we do with this?
46:56
This whole idea that spending is uh I think we're gonna break all-time records.
47:02
That's just my prediction.
47:04
I hope I'm wrong, but my prediction is we're gonna spend an all-time record on this Black Friday.
47:11
They're already saying that the amount of people going shopping is expected to be a good bit more than last year.
47:18
So you can't tell me that because those numbers are up, all of a sudden people are gonna have self-restraint, self-discipline, and they're not gonna spend a whole bunch of money.
47:30
So, yeah, where do we fit with all this?
47:32
Well, the overall economy, it it really does remain resilient.
47:36
All the doom and gloom stuff that you hear, it's I don't know.
47:40
I tend to tune that stuff out and just actually look at the statistics.
47:45
The economy's still moving.
47:46
There are still plenty of jobs that are available, lots and lots and lots of jobs available.
47:52
Uh, there are still there remain seven million jobs that are vacant, ready for people to walk into.
48:03
You know, we have seven million able-bodied according to um according to research.
48:11
We have seven million able-bodied people, men who are not working.
48:16
Yeah, and there are vacancies for these for for those men for these jobs.
48:20
They're there.
48:21
High paying jobs.
48:24
These are blue-collar jobs that people just don't want.
48:28
I guess they don't want to get their hands dirty, or they don't know about the jobs, or some people might feel the jobs are beneath them.
48:37
But I would love to see those jobs getting filled.
48:41
So the jobs are there.
48:43
There is a market, and many of these jobs are recession proof, which is good news.
48:49
You know, it's really good news for people looking for jobs right now.
48:53
Because I know in some sectors there have been pretty big layoffs.
48:56
I was talking about Verizon, they just laid off what, like 12,000 or something like that people this uh this past week.
49:04
Yeah, that's heartbreaking.
49:07
But the good news is there are jobs out there, there are vacancies, there are jobs available, good paying jobs.
49:16
So the economy is is it's resilient, it always has been.
49:28
So retailers have this huge participation on Black Friday, always.
49:36
So we're getting more shoppers, not less.
49:41
And online and in-store channels are very, very active.
49:45
They're not slowing down.
49:47
There is zero sign that this is slowing down right now.
49:52
So how do how do we how do we um reel people in?
50:00
How do we get people to realize that overspending is problematic?
50:06
That we'll still have a good economy if we don't overspend.
50:09
And some people are like, well, if we don't spend, the economy is going to come to a grinding halt.
50:14
I don't think that anybody has a big enough wrench to throw into the spokes of the American economy to bring it to a grinding halt.
50:23
It's just not going to happen anytime soon.
50:26
So here are kind of my tips for what we do.
50:30
How do we get a mindset shift that moved from deals to deliberation?
50:38
So here are the ideas.
50:41
First, just pause.
50:43
Take a moment, breathe.
50:45
Ask whether the purchase aligns with your bigger goals.
50:49
I mentioned the TV that my wife and I got.
50:53
That was a couple years ago, and I have no regrets.
50:56
That's usually an indication that you had a good purchase.
51:00
Zero regrets whatsoever.
51:04
We didn't buy it just, you know, without thinking about it.
51:07
We literally pulled our budget out together.
51:10
And we were looking at it and saying, do we have the money for this?
51:15
Do we have money allotted for this kind of thing?
51:18
Because it literally was just a purely pleasure, uh, not a necessity.
51:24
It was just something that we wanted, something for fun.
51:26
Do we have the money?
51:28
Pause and ask yourself whether that purchase aligns with your bigger goals.
51:33
Number two, recognize that more deals will come.
51:36
I promise you, this is not the only moment.
51:40
It's not the only time.
51:41
Black Friday is not the only time that you'll be able to make these purchases.
51:45
I promise you that.
51:48
Every retailer out there is going to try to convince you that this is the only time that the product's available.
51:53
Once it's gone, it's gone.
51:56
Do not fall for it.
51:59
They will restock.
52:02
They will have good deals again, maybe even better deals.
52:09
Recognize that more deals will come.
52:12
Number three, use this as a chance to reframe spending as connection rather than consumption.
52:20
Focus on what we can do for each other.
52:24
How we allocate funds intentionally.
52:26
You know, I've done a couple stories this week on Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving giving is hitting record numbers.
52:35
People are buying more food for people, more whole meals.
52:39
Actually, just a couple days before Thanksgiving, my mother dropped off a box of food.
52:45
She asked me if I know of any families who could use a huge box of food.
52:50
And she's like, I'm telling you, there is a lot of good food in here.
52:55
So I reached out, and lo and behold, I found a family.
52:59
Or at least a family who knew of a family that they're going to deliver the box to.
53:06
So my mom drops off this box.
53:10
She said, hey, I brought this box over for you to bring to that family.
53:15
Like, okay, cool.
53:18
So I get this box, and she's like, be careful, it's heavy.
53:21
This box was absolutely a huge box full of food.
53:28
It had a big turkey in it, big frozen turkey, tons and tons and tons of food.
53:34
Fresh fruit and vegetables, potatoes, all kinds of canned foods, lots and lots of good food.
53:43
She said, this year, our organization got the most amount of boxes by far that we've ever had before.
53:51
And she's like, the people were saying we don't feel like we did enough boxes.
53:55
Next year, we're going to beat this number.
53:58
And so now it's a challenge for them.
54:00
This is happening all over America.
54:02
I'm telling you, this is happening all over America.
54:08
So while consumer spending is up, so is giving.
54:15
Use this time as a chance to reframe your spending as connection rather than consumption.
54:21
Can you imagine if we spent just a little bit less on the Black Friday deals?
54:27
Stuff that we don't need.
54:28
If we reallocated some of that money to go towards people who actually have tremendous needs, food, clothing, things like that.
54:38
Can you imagine what we could accomplish?
54:41
So what do we look out for?
54:44
The number of shoppers this season is supposed to be higher than last year.
54:50
So even if the average spending is projected to be flat or down a little bit, the number of shoppers is rising.
55:00
The financial tools might inflate actual spending beyond the intention.
55:05
So be careful of your credit card.
55:08
Those things are wildly dangerous.
55:12
Unless you have a budget in place, which is my next point, budgeting promises can falter.
55:18
Don't cross your fingers and make a promise.
55:20
Actually, stick to hard numbers.
55:23
This is the best thing that I can tell you.
55:26
Do not spend above your means.
55:28
I promise it will change your life.
55:30
It is an absolute game changer for my family.
55:34
My wife and I just talked budget over her lunch break just yesterday.
55:41
We said, or sorry, two days ago.
55:46
She came home for lunch and she's like, hey, um, let's talk budget.
55:53
She's like, things are looking really, really good.
55:56
And she's like, it really, really is paying off.
56:00
Having discipline, keep them within our means.
56:04
She's like, the numbers are good.
56:07
So budgeting promises falter when emotional triggers and social norms dominate.
56:12
Keep that in mind.
56:13
Don't get caught up in the buzz of Black Friday and you have to get this deal, and it's it's it's gonna go away if I don't buy it now.
56:22
Do not fall for those traps.
56:25
And finally, the macro backdrop of record debt levels suggests some pressure on the economy, especially for younger and middle income households.
56:35
So be aware of that.
56:37
Debt is high, but so is giving.
56:42
And we need to find balance.
56:43
We got to find balance somewhere in the middle.
56:45
And when we do that, that's when we become the hidden lightness.
56:49
When we're responsible and we're giving, I would love to see us be the most generous people that we've ever been in any given time in history.
57:00
And I think we can get there.
57:03
That, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
57:06
You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the many navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedules.
57:13
You'll be in the know.
57:14
And remember, there is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
57:19
When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
57:27
Join me in being a light.