holiday sales up almost 20%

i was watching 60 minutes tonight and there was a news flash during one of the commercial breaks that sales were up 19% over last year during the black friday weekend. no explanation given that the numbers came from the national retail federation’s annual black friday weekend survey. read the press release, then read the methodology. a poll of 3,090 consumers, purporting to capture the spending habits of 140 million shoppers, and conducted by the world’s largest retail trade association.

“The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percent”. ummm, yeah, on the 3,090 consumers they polled. there were even some interesting insights into the gender differences in shoppers. “While women seemed to take a more casual approach to Black Friday shopping, men went out on the hunt and then went back home to bed.”