Most know that Black Friday’s name came from days gone when retailers finally turned a profit for the first time of the year, or moved into the “Black”.

Fortunately as analysts in this day and age, most companies profit throughout the year, but certainly have a heavy dependence on the next few days of revenue.

In a slightly humorous post for today, we share two totally different imaginary people, “Sammy the Spender” and “Susie the Saver”.

Today “Sammy the Spender” (An Analyst and Investor’s Dream)

We want everyone to hit the malls with Sammy and shop until they drop. Retailers and consumer related companies are ready for a frugal shopper and have stocked their inventories and priced their products appropriately. All retailers need are a few good shopping hours. Sammy, which we hope shows up on Friday morning, early, in good spirits, with money to burn, would make for a major positive season. Consumers have been relatively frugal as unemployment fears have reigned in their spending, keeping consumer related companies on their toes.  As an Analyst, we hope Sammy makes for a positive start to the season!

Last holiday season was extremely tough for retailers, making comparable growth numbers (comparisons from last year) a low, and easily jumped hurdle. As revenue numbers are reported  from the season, easy comparisons should make for nice growth year over year, in turn propelling further good will (moving upwards) the capital markets.

As an Analyst and Investor, we wish Sammy a Spirited Holiday, and VERY busy Season.

Now that we’ve introduced our hopeful busy appearance of a cheerful character, “Sammy the Spender” as an Investor’s and Analyst’s best friend, we’ll share experiences with “Susie the Saver” a Planner and Saver.

After winding down from Thanksgiving, Susie spends time thinking of the various gifts she has not already purchased for the season, along with a few important needed items for the remainder of the year.   Understanding that many items will truly be at a great discount on Black Friday morning, Susie’s time is spent organizing her possible final purchases. Contrary to her counterpart Sammy, Susie takes time to understand the items she “needs” and the other items she just “wants”.

As Friday morning makes its appearance, Suzie takes time scan the local paper for bargains, and before venturing out to the various retail establishments, happily discovers on-line, most of her needed items are also offering “free shipping”.  After a few point and clicks, most all of Suzie’s “needed” items and gifts are complete, leaving her time to visit with friends and family and take an occassional exhausted call from her good friend “Sammy the Spender” (still fighting crowds late into the night).

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

First photo by: Retinafunk

Second photo by:  Andy Hay

UPDATE:  As a quick update from last week’s humorous duo of fabricated personalities, we wanted to give you a quick status report.

It appears as if “Sammy the Spender” did make a few runs to the store, but was trumped by “Suzie the Saver” as we firmly established a new holiday lingo “Cyber Monday“.

As a side note, I found myself on a few cell phone text updates for holiday specials, as an interesting way to monitor company sales, the technology they were using, and this rather new form of marketing.

Overall we estimate retail and related sales were not as robust as expected, as the consumer, rightly so, remains frugal in spending. This situation will form an interesting end of the year struggle as public companies via for a smaller sales pool, at reduced rates.