by , 12:00 PM EST, December 3rd, 2002
We reported yesterday that Apple's after-Thanksgiving sales event last Friday was a success, and today the company released numbers to a Dow Jones Business Wire that illustrates the point. According to the article, which dealt with what appears to have been a successful weekend for the computer industry as a whole, Apple had more than 365,000 people in and out of its retail locations across the US last week. Specific sales figures were not released.
For our non-US readers, retail locations close on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, making it a 6-day week for those retailers. The day after Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday shopping season for the US. From the Dow Jones Business Wire:
At Apple Computer Inc., Ron Johnson, senior vice president, retail, said the computer maker had its busiest week ever at the Apple retail stores, with over 365,000 people visiting its 50 stores in the six-day Thanksgiving week.
"It does look like it was a pretty good weekend," for computer and consumer electronics, said Roger Kay, director of client computing at market research firm IDC. "It's pretty clear some retailers, including electronics, had good weekends."
According to Mr. Kay, who strolled the aisles of electronic stores during the extended shopping period, hot items with consumers included DVD players, digital video cameras, displays and personal computers. Mr. Kay even reported seeing high-end purchases of home entertainment systems and monitors.
[...]
Indeed, promotions were the name of the game throughout the weekend, as is the case in most years
[...]
Apple also had its fair share of promotions for the Thanksgiving weekend. On " Black Friday," Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., held a special holiday event from 6 p.m. to midnight in which customers who attended received free stocking stuffers, special values, and a chance to win a new 15-inch iMac.
There's more information on weekend sales for the industry in the full article.
Breaking it down further, 365,000 people over 6 days in 50 stores comes to about 1217 people per store per day. Since most of those people most likely came during the three day weekend, instead of being nicely spread out over the 6 days, those are some pretty impressive numbers. It also serves as evidence of what a powerful force Apple's retail locations are when taken as a whole. 365,000 people checking out what Apple has to offer is a pretty big deal. Anecdotal evidence suggests that quite a few of those people purchased something while they were there, and that's an even bigger deal.