Super Saturday Shopping Solid Despite Omicron

RAPAPORT… The number of shoppers visiting physical retail stores on Super Saturday increased 19% year on year as customers made last-minute holiday purchases.

The growth on the last Saturday before Christmas came despite concerns over the latest Covid-19 variant, retail tracker Sensormatic Solutions said Monday.

“At this point, we’re not seeing a noticeable impact to brick-and-mortar retail” from Omicron, Peter McCall, senior manager of retail consulting at Sensormatic Solutions, told Bloomberg. However, he noted there were still “lots of days ahead of us between now and the end of the year.”

The day is known as Super Saturday due to the large number of consumers who come out to make purchases. It often ranks as the second-busiest holiday shopping day of the year, after Black Friday.

“There were only three Saturdays in December leading up to Christmas Day this year,” said McCall. “As we expected, Super Saturday remains a big part of consumers’ holiday shopping plans to grab last-minute items, with supply-chain issues delaying the arrival of online orders in time for holiday celebrations.”

Physical shopping has yet to bounce back from pre-pandemic levels. The number of customers shopping in stores fell 26% from Super Saturday 2019, the data showed. This year, Black Friday traffic declined 28% compared to 2019 but increased 48% relative to last year.

Image: People shopping at a mall. (Shutterstock)