Who's Going to be Getting "Malled?"

A recent Maritz Poll found that one-third of respondents (37%) plan to shop on the day after Thanksgiving – slightly more than the 34% in a 2006 poll.

The consumer market research poll shows that respondents with household incomes of $100,000 or more will shop at significantly higher levels (45%) on Black Friday than those in the lowest income group of less than $25,000 (30%) – although one could readily imagine those kind of distinctions being evident the other 364 days of the year as well.

Generational Implications

Black Friday also has generational implications, according to Maritz, who found that most Gen Y respondents (59%), and a significant portion of Gen X (46%) planned to head out to the malls on that day, while less than a quarter (23%) of Boomers and those in the so-called Silent Generation (21%) planned to venture out.

According to the Maritz poll, the average spend this holiday season will be $637, down 10% from 2006. One-quarter of all respondents said they would spend less this year, with half citing “less money to spend this year” as the primary reason.

The online Maritz Poll, which was conducted October 8 – 11, 2007, and included responses from 993 randomly selected adults from an Internet panel survey on topics related to holiday shopping, buying behaviors and gift-giving trends.

Respondents for this market research poll were split evenly between males and females, and results were weighted to match census demographics (on age, income, race, education and children in household). Margin of error for the overall poll is +/- three percent.