American merchants are waiting for the holidays with optimism |LFM Radio

Whatever concerns about inflation or availability of certain articles: after almost two years of ambient gloom, American consumers seem ready to open their portfolio widely during the holiday season.

The merchants, who have had no trouble getting out of their stocks at the start of the school year or in Halloween, are preparing for a new frenzy of purchases this Friday, for the traditional day of big promotions according to the celebration of Thanksgiving, the "Black Friday ".

The recent price increases do not seem to frighten them beyond measure, even if the gasoline jumped 60% over a year or that the Thanksgiving meal should cost 14% more than in 2020, according to the agricultural union American farm office.

"Everything indicates that American consumers are looking to celebrate the holiday season (...). They just want to find their family and friends," said the boss of the Target supermarket chain, Brian Cornell, last week.

After all the logistical problems in recent months, large distribution groups like Walmart have claimed to have enough stocks for the tree to be well stocked.

Perhaps it will miss particularly popular objects, such as certain game consoles or specific Apple electronic products.

A little less choice

Customers "will not necessarily find their first choice," warned the boss of the Sports Foot Locker shoe channel, Richard Johnson.

But "if the size, the color or the style they want are not available, they have shown a real ability to continue their research and, with the help of our sellers, to find a product that suits them,"-Al added.

The question of whether there will be Christmas toys has surfaced this summer and has grown while the bottlenecks in the supply chain were not absorbed.

The White House even intervened in October to announce that two large ports of the west coast were going to extend their working hours.The number of containers staying on the quays of the port of Los Angeles, the most important in the United States, has drastically decreased since.

Other problems remain to be resolved, such as the lack of truck drivers or handling in warehouses, underlines Jen Blackhurst, specialist in supply chains at Iowa University.There could thus be delays in deliveries.

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"I don't think there will be massive shortages (...), but I don't think the holiday season will be completely normal either," she said.

The American Federation of Traders (NRF) expects an increase in sales of 8.5% to 10.5%, stressing that the end result will depend on the capacity of traders to fill empty spaces in their shelves.

Health restrictions?

Large groups have used major means to minimize disturbances, important articles earlier, using planes, sometimes even charting their own boats.

"We found solutions," summed up the boss of the parent company in clothing stores and decoration TJ Maxx, Ernie Herrman."This does not mean that we do not pay high prices. But the teams have found ways of bringing the goods."

Some stores such as Walmart and Target have assured that they would not pay the increase in their costs to consumers.TJ Maxx adopted a "case -by -case case" approach and increased the price of certain products.

Other channels such as MACY's department stores or Williams-Sonoma kitchen items eliminated discounts.

Macy's led more than 400 tests to determine when customers accept price increases or not.

Unusual element, price increases also affect online purchases, which according to the Adobe site could represent 25% of sales over the holiday season this year.

Before the pandemic, the prices of the articles available on the Internet tend to back down, thus participating in relative stability of the shopping basket.Since June 2020, they have been increasing every month.

For Neil Saunders, a distribution specialist at the GlobalData cabinet, inflation "really affects consumers' ability to spend", but its impact should be more severely felt in 2022 than in the coming weeks.

The COVID-19 should not either, he says, slow down its enthusiasm, the United States does not seem willing to take new measures of health restrictions as in Europe."Many people will simply say that there are enough," he predicts.

This article was published automatically.Sources: ATS / AWP / AFP