Black Friday Successes and Dissapointments-what Items Weren't on the Shelves

For the millions of consumers and retailers who were wide eyed and bushy tailed early black Friday morning, the success was apparently worth doing it all over again next year. However, there were also several consumers who were disappointed to find the items they had really hoped for had already disappeared from store shelves within the early hours of the morning.

Many sale items were ripped away within the first few minutes of store openings while consumers raced to get the items at incredible discounts.

Many consumers were also motivated by an ulterior motive, to make their own profit. Indeed consumers who purchased hot items for only $400, anticipate to turn around and sell these items for straight profit on EBAY, sometimes making a 100% profit.

The hottest items included Fisher Price's Elmo, Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii. While they were nearly impossible to find early on in the day, there were several other successful sales and many retailers were able to climb up out of the red and into the black as they were hoping.

Many shoppers were disappointed in the shortages of popular items. They were likely to run out, however, it seemed that they didn't even sort of keep up with the demand and retailers ended up being hurt with the lack of ample supplies.

Discounts and early openings led to many retailers making quite a profit this year.

In fact, sales estimates were approximately $8.96 billion dollars according to ShopperTrak, which tracks shoppers at 45,000 stores and malls.

Many Wal-Mart shoppers were disappointed that they had run out of items they were really hoping to purchase for the holiday season. For example, the new Elmo TMX and the PlayStation 3 were hard to find and shoppers were disappointed with the lack of access.

It is sad to note that retailers do it on purpose. The higher the demand, the more likely they will sell. Patricia Pao, founder of retail consultant The Pao Principal in New York noted, "Scarcity of products make them valuable," as stated for businessweek.com

Empty store shelves may have been the easiest thing to find this black Friday. The Elmo TMX or "Tickle-Me-Extreme" Elmo is sold out pretty much everywhere. This tenth anniversary edition from Mattel was probably purposely released to create a buzz. It's hard to believe that it was only ten years ago that the first tickle me Elmo hit the stores, or rather disappeared from shelves within minutes. Once again, the Elmo character has caused a stir within many retail stores.

Fisher Price, however claims the shortage was not intended. Ebay sellers are not disappointed of course. The Elmo who was listed as $39 is now available for more than $100 by some EBAY sellers and the price may climb. The Elmo is exclusive for its hysterical laughter, rolling over and standing up.

The PS3 from Sony was sold out before it even hit the shelves. The initial shipment was approximately only 125,000.
Sony is planning to ship additional PS3 to the North American Market.

It was noted that retailers are still demanding the PS3s as they are quickly being lifted off of the shelves by frenzied holiday consumers.

The goal is to have 1 million units in stores by December 31, 2006.

The PS3s were also being sold on Ebay for over $1000, which were sold in stores for $600. The $400 profit isn't bad for camping out in the parking lot Thanksgiving night.

In fact, more and more consumers intentionally buy the products on Black Friday in order to turn around and make a profit. The consumers end up making a much greater profit than retailers on an individual product, however, both are happy with the profit.

Many customers of course felt short-changed.

Many malls also opened extra early this year, including BestBuy which opened at 5am compared to the typical 6am opening. BestBuy lines were notable as many in the Midwest enjoyed the pleasant weather and stayed out the night before the store opened.

Wal-mart also made a sweep with their Viore 42-inch plasma TV for only $988.

They were not as successful as hoped for with that product. Advisors point to the fact that without the hot items of Elmo and the PS3, many shoppers won't come in the door.

Also, Wal-Mart's Web site suffered through Black Friday with some system glitches that lasted for almost 10 hours.
Online shopping is expected to include 47.1% of holiday shopping this year, four times what it was just three years ago. Many employees use the office computer to shop after the holiday weekend to avoid the crowds and lines.