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Monday November 30, 2015

// November 30th, 2015 // Daily News

Black Friday brought in 151M, most online: NRF survey
CNBC.com

The Thanksgiving weekend saw more than 151 million bargain hungry consumers open up their wallets to make purchases either on the Internet or in physical stores, the National Retail Federation said on Sunday. This year, the NRF changed its methodology to reflect changes to shopping and retail trends, which make year over year comparisons difficult.
The NRF’s sentiment survey, which are not based on actual retailer’s results, said the number of people shopping exceeded their mid-November survey, when the organization estimated 136 million would shop over Thanksgiving weekend.
The NRF’s results also underscored the growing power of the Internet. The number of people who shopped online–more than 103 million, according to the organization–edged out the nearly 102 million who opted for in-store deals. The average spending per person over the weekend totaled nearly $300, and most shoppers were under the age of 35.
“It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online for holiday savings opportunities,” ,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.
According to Shay, 42 percent of shoppers that said they shopped online, while nearly 52 percent shopped either in store, online or both. Black Friday spending has evolved because of early sales, he added.
Evidence is mounting that consumers are gravitating toward mobile to avoid what retail tracking firm ShopperTrak noted was a “social stigma” associated with Black Friday. Meanwhile, a growing number of retailers are offering deals in advance of Thanksgiving, and shoppers are taking advantage of those—thus depriving the two day shopping extravaganza of some of its importance.
On Saturday, ShopperTrak’s preliminary figures estimated combined retail sales of $12.1 billion over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a projected decrease from the comparable year-ago period. The firm added that Thanksgiving Day grossed just shy of $2 billion, while Black Friday pulled in more than $10 billion.
Separately, data from analytics firm RetailNext showed overall sales for both days fell 1.5 percent as customer traffic flattened, pushing down average spending per shopper by 1.4 percent.

Today’s Inspiration

Who Is Your Confidence In?

by Joyce Meyer – posted November 30, 2015

For we . . .glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances.
—Philippians 3:3

Today’s scripture destroys any reason to believe we can put confidence in anything we can do or have done. It clearly tells us that our confidence cannot be in “the flesh,” but instead must be “in Christ Jesus.”

It is freeing to finally see that our worth and value are not based on what we do, but on who we are in Christ. God has assigned value to us by allowing Jesus to die for us. By that very act, God the Father is saying to each one of us, “You are very valuable to Me, and I will pay any price to see that you have the good life I originally intended for you.”

Once we recognize who we are in Christ, then and only then can we effectively begin to pray about the things we do for Him, but He wants us to do them in response to what He has done for us and in us. He wants our good works to flow out of our love for Him, not out of a sense of mere duty or obligation.

Meditate on what God has done for you in Christ and the value He has placed on you by sending His Son to die for you. It will help you fall more deeply in love with Him daily and enable you to serve Him from a position of love rather than duty or obligation.

Love Yourself Today: Confess that God loves you and you are valuable. Appreciate what God has done for you, and serve Him because you love and adore Him.