Opinion: There’s more to hooking shoppers on Black Friday than a good deal
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On the occasion of Black Friday, the first official shopping day of the holiday season, coauthors of the new book ‘Spend Shift,’ Michael D’Antonio and John Gerzema, have written an op-ed explaining the psychology of shoppers –- not just why we shop, but where we choose to spend our money and how it often reflects our subconscious agendas.
They write:
‘The biggest swing [since the recession began], when it comes to the issues we confront with our dollars, is related to civility. Starting in the middle of this decade, respondents began to tell us that they wanted to feel respected and appreciated by the people they do business with. Between 2005 and 2009, the value placed on the ‘kindness and empathy’ expressed by vendors shot up a whopping 391%. The importance of ‘friendliness’ went up by 124%, and the value placed on ‘social responsibility,’ which can be translated as ‘being a good neighbor and citizen,’ rose by 63%.’
Read on to see how this explains why shoppers have trended toward Zappos, L.L. Bean, Levi Strauss, Red Wing Shoe and Etsy.
-- Alexandra Le Tellier
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