Record-Breaking Black Friday For eBay's PayPal 115
adeelarshad82 writes "eBay's PayPal division reported that PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to last year. PayPal didn't release the total payment volume, but claimed that its Payflow Gateway system processes nearly a quarter of e-commerce, while its direct sales numbers reflect 12 percent of all e-commerce. In general, reports from a number of e-tailers and retailers indicated that consumers spent more on Black Friday than in 2008, when the United States was in the midst of a recession. However, it's still unclear whether shoppers bought more on Black Friday, when they could expect a discount on what usually is one of the busiest days in the holiday season, or whether the pattern will continue. In 2008, shoppers stopped buying in early December, a shock that the US economy felt well into 2009."
How did your Black Friday turn out? Did you wait in endless lines and contribute to the trampling deaths of fellow shoppers, sit at home and help take down your favorite online retailer's servers, or eschew the process altogether?
Re:trampling deaths?? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html [nytimes.com]
He was exaggerating about this year I think (not seen any trampling to death news reports), but it happened last year on Black Friday.
Re:OK, for those not in the know. (Score:5, Informative)
Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in November.
No, it's not. It's the 4th Thursday in November. Usually that is the last, but occasionally there are 5 Thursdays (like there was in 2007). Thanksgiving will always fall in the range of Nov 22nd to 28th.
Re:OK, for those not in the know. (Score:4, Informative)
I've been trying to get my extended family to stop buying ITEMS as gifts for years.
Services, or better yet, EXPERIENCES, are something most people will remember for a lifetime. Often, people cannot even remember WHO gave them an item for Christmas.
The really nice thing about services/experiences, as a gift, is that you usually know who is benefiting from the purchase. Buy someone a round of golf at the local course? The guys working there at the course benefit. Buy someone a trip to Catalina Island for the weekend? The people that live there benefit. It keeps the money in OUR economy (unless you're buying someone a trip to Uruguay...but, hey, Urugauyans need money too. At least you know it is going to them and not some anonymous corporate shareholder).
Giving someone an experience...well, it is the gift that keeps giving regardless of time or place. You simply think about it to continue enjoying it.
My usual gift to the family is a lavish, one-of-a-kind Christmas dinner (I used to be a chef). Last year it was a cream-based bouillabaisse made with green-lip mussels, soft-shelled crab, sweet scallops, jumbo prawns, fresh Copper River Salmon and served with the best San Francisco sourdough bread I could get my hands on (not that crap from the supermarket...I prowl the city looking for the real stuff).
Sure, it was an object, but it was the experience of eating it with each other that my family remembers. And I know it isn't sitting, forgotten, in the back of the closet (at least I sure hope not!).
Re:It's actually drastically DOWN. More than a thi (Score:1, Informative)
GLD closed at $80.31 last Black Friday and $155.06 this one. (GLD is an exchange traded fund that tracks the price of gold. One share is the price of 1/10th ounce. I use it as a proxy for the price of gold because it was quick to look up.
That says the price of gold went up by over 43%. Since gold is essentially stable in value, it says the Dollar inflated by about 43%. So if the sales, denominated in dollars, only went up by 20%, they dropped drastically (in terms of gold or a gold-backed currency).
(1.2 * 80.31 / 155.06) -1 = -37.85% Down by more than a third.
How does this relate to the USD, which is not gold-backed?