By STEVEN HERBERT
LOS ANGELES – Thousands of people are expected to hit malls and stores across Southern California on November 25 for Black Friday as part of the California Highway Patrol’s increased statewide efforts to combat the retail organized flight.
The California Highway Patrol’s Retail Organized Crime Task Force is increasing its presence in malls across the state and working with local law enforcement to make arrests and increase visibility.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 331 into law July 21 by Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr., D-Los Angeles, to expand and expand the task force. Its regional teams work with local law enforcement and retailers to proactively combat organized retail theft.
Since the task force was established, the CHP has been involved in 1,296 investigations, the arrest of 645 suspects and the recovery of 271,697 stolen items of retail merchandise worth nearly $26 million, said Newsom.
“California deserve to feel safe, especially when they go to the stores this holiday season,” Newsom said. “We have redoubled our efforts to fight crime with millions of dollars to successfully deter, apprehend and prosecute criminals involved in organized retail theft.
“This year, malls across California will see saturated patrols as regional CHP teams work with local law enforcement to help make arrests and recover stolen merchandise.”
According to an annual survey released Nov. 17 by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, about 166.3 million people plan to shop from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, or nearly 8 million people more than last year and the highest estimate since the federation started tracking data in 2017.
“While there is much speculation about the impact of inflation on consumer behavior, our data tells us that this Thanksgiving holiday weekend will see robust in-store traffic with record numbers of shoppers. taking advantage of value pricing,” said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail association.
“We are optimistic that retail sales will remain strong in the coming weeks, and retailers are ready to meet consumers, however they want to shop, with great products at great prices. they want to pay.”
According to the survey, 69% of holiday shoppers plan to shop during Thanksgiving weekend. The top reasons consumers consider shopping are because offers are too good to ignore (59%), because of tradition (27%), or because it’s something to do (22%) during vacations.
Black Friday continues to be the most popular day to shop, with 69% (114.9 million) planning to shop then, followed by 38% (63.9 million) on Cyber Monday. Of the 114.9 million Black Friday shoppers, 67% said they expected to visit stores, up from 64% in 2021.
Similar to 2020 and 2021, 60% of holiday shoppers said they started browsing and buying for the season as early as early November. This consumer trend of earlier purchases has been accelerated by the pandemic. In 2019, 56% of holiday shoppers started shopping around this time.
“As consumers continue to save the bulk of their holiday shopping for later in November and December, some of that spending has shifted into October,” said Phil Rist, executive vice president of strategy. from Prosper, a consumer intent data company.
“This year, 18% of holiday shoppers made at least half of their holiday shopping. Although this figure is comparable to last year, it was only 11% ten years ago. »
The survey found that clothes remained at the top of the list of what people planned to buy during Christmas shopping at 55%, followed by gift cards (45%), toys (37%), books /music/movies/video games (33%). and food/sweets (31%).
Legos were again the top buyers of predicted toys for boys, followed by Hot Wheels, up one place from last year, and cars and trucks, down one place. PlayStation and video games were again fourth and fifth. Pokémon was sixth, up four spots from 2021.
Nerf products were seventh, down one place, electric and remote control cars eighth, dinosaur-related gifts ninth, and Xbox game systems 10th, down one place.
The top four on the girls list were the same as a year ago – Barbie dolls, any doll, LOL Surprise! dolls and Legos. Plush toys Makeup and Squishmallows finished fifth and sixth after failing to make the top 10 last year. American Girl dolls and clothes tied for seventh.
Disney-related items were ninth and baby dolls 10th.
The survey of 7,719 adult consumers was conducted from November 1 to 8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
Last Chance for Animals will hold its 36th annual Black Friday Fur-Free Friday event in Beverly Hills, with the goal of raising awareness and educating retailers and shoppers about the horrors of the fur trade. The protest will also include a celebration of California’s ban on the sale of fur products, which goes into effect January 1.
Black Friday is also the 31st annual ‘Buy Nothing Day’, billed as ‘a 24-hour moratorium on consumer spending’ to ‘untangle your mind from compulsive buying, the addiction that is wreaking more havoc than ever on our natural and mental. environments,” according to Adbusters, who designed the day.
Suggested activities for “Buy Nothing Day” include setting up a table with a pair of scissors in a mall to give passers-by a chance to cut up their credit cards and organizing a group to push “empty shopping carts in a long, inexplicable conga line without ever buying anything.
Adbusters describes itself as “a global network of activists, writers, artists, designers, hackers, scammers, poets, philosophers and punks”.