Tamar Avnet: Can Late-Night Shopping Reclaim the Young Consumer?

Over the past several years, merchants have essentially turned Black Friday into Black Thursday by starting sales shortly after most Americans put away their last turkey leftovers. While longer hours may seem like common sense, in reality we may be seeing businesses shrewdly combining shopping and the social experience to draw young consumers back into their physical stores.

Americans’ obsession with after-Thanksgiving shopping dates back to 1939, when U.S. retailers asked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to move the holiday to the fourth Thursday of November instead of its traditional date, which had been the last Thursday of the month.

Retailers reasoned that this subtle change would prolong the shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, giving consumers more time to spend their money on gifts—and they have worked for seven decades to figure out how to maximize this spending window.

Their latest attempt focuses on using Black Friday to specifically target a younger shopping audience.

The strategy starts with a good old-fashioned sales principle: that consumers are not necessarily rational thinkers. Read the rest of this entry…

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Shalsheles and Edon to Headline December 13 Annual Chanukah Concert

Edon Pinchot, the teen music sensation who burst onto the scene this year as a semifinalist on the TV show “America’s Got Talent,” and veteran Jewish music group Shalsheles, will headline this year’s annual Yeshiva University Chanukah Concert on Thursday, December 13 at 8 p.m. YU a cappella group, the Y-Studs, will open the show. The concert will take place at YU’s Lamport Auditorium, 2540 Amsterdam Ave. in Washington Heights. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is organized by Yeshiva University’s undergraduate student councils. Read the rest of this entry…

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