Black Friday Shoppers Face Highest Inflation in Years

Black Friday has returned this holiday season, and shoppers faced the highest inflation rates seen in years. According to CBS News, inflated prices throughout the year on things such as “food, rent, gasoline and other household costs have taken a toll on shoppers,” causing them to spend less money this Black Friday than previous years.

Katie Leach, a social worker in New York City, told CBS that she would be doing holiday shopping later this year, most likely the first week of December. Leach said “money is not going as far as last year,” and that she’ll be “relying more on bargains, her credit card and buy now, pay later services to get her through the shopping season because of surging prices on food and other household expenses.” According to The National Retail Federation, around “115 million people plan to shop in stores and online this year on the traditional day of discounted shopping and an estimated 64 million people are expected to shop on Cyber Monday.” Many people are tending to find more deals that they can spend money on later in the week, such as those online with Cyber Monday. CBS reported that the “two-month period between Thanksgiving and Christmas are about 20% of the retail industry’s annual sales,” and many stores are not making what they used to.