Sarah Anderson was out toy shopping on Black Friday, keeping an eye on the family budget and an uncertain economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the most part, we\u2019re gifting our kids one or two medium to large-sized gifts,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t need any more things or stuff in our house, really. Being able to have less stuff and being choosier about the stuff we bring into the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson certainly isn\u2019t the only one hitting the stores while watching their wallets. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The National Retail Federation says nationwide, a record 187 million people are shopping through Cyber Monday.<\/p>\n
The group predicts Americans will spend $1 trillion during this holiday season. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dave Vang, a University of St. Thomas finance professor, says despite those high numbers, consumer confidence is a bit shaky right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of it is consumer sentiment,\u201d he explains. \u201cI mean, we\u2019ve been through some hard times between COVID and the near double-digit inflation we\u2019ve had recently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another problem, Vang says, is tariff uncertainty, an issue Kelsey Cerovac is all too familiar with. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome things would go up five dollars wholesale, some things would go up ten dollars to twenty dollars,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Cerovac is the buyer for GoodThings Kids, a White Bear Lake toy store.<\/p>\n
With half her toy inventory coming from China, she says it\u2019s been a roller-coaster year that\u2019s been settling down a bit in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
But at times, Cerovac says she\u2019s had to nix some orders from wholesalers while trying to avoid passing the cost on to her customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a continuous cycle of \u2018every order you it\u2019s place, you have to look at the numbers,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cThey\u2019ll come back with what the price increases were, and you have to see if it\u2019s worth it, and think like the consumer, \u2018would I spend that much money on an item?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But this new normal for brick-and-mortar stores doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
Adobe Analytics, which tracks e-commerce transactions, says online spending on Thanksgiving Thursday rose 5.3% year-over-year to $6.4 billion.<\/p>\n
Vang says that means fewer customers in brick-and-mortar stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem for the stores, of course, if you\u2019re a brick-and-mortar place, they\u2019re buying online rather than from you,\u201d he notes. \u201cBlack Friday and all these sorts of rituals we sort of had around Christmas, they actually got people into the stores and made them more likely to do impulse buying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s just a sign of the times,\u201d adds Nancy Olson, visiting White Bear Lake from Duluth. \u201cIt\u2019s more convenient, you can shop whenever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vang says for some Minnesotans, there may be another motivation for taking it easy on the spending.<\/p>\n
He points to a series of layoffs in the state, including about 1800 job cuts at Target. \u201cIf you\u2019re concerned about your job, you\u2019re probably not going to splurge like you normally do if you\u2019re very, very confident about your job,\u201d Vang explains.<\/p>\n
Back at GoodThings Kids, Cerovac says the store just might have a secret weapon in this holiday shopping competition. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fortunate thing is there will always be babies,\u201d she smiles. \u201cPeople will always need to buy gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n