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"Cyber Monday" Expected To Draw Virtual Crowds

Posted by Soulskill on from the like-black-friday-but-with-fewer-deaths dept.

Anti-Globalism writes with this excerpt from PCWorld: "Last year, consumers spent $733 million on Cyber Monday, and it's expected to be even bigger this year. According to a survey by online shopping site Shopzilla for the National Retail Federation's Shop.org, nearly 84 percent of online retailers plan to have a Cyber Monday promotion on December 1. That's up from just 72 percent last year and zero percent in 2005, says Shop.org executive director Scott Silverman."

33 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Who can afford it? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just got a pay cut at work, I may even lose my job if things don't turn around, and my mortgage is now worth more than my house. Not really in a spending mood right now.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Who can afford it? by p3n1x420 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      come on now, stimulate the economy, spent big, spend with plastic! its not like everybody can afford all this junk as it is. some yes, but the majority im willing to bet are digging their holes deeper and deeper.

    2. Re:Who can afford it? by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not really in a spending mood right now.

      Why do you hate freedom?

    3. Re:Who can afford it? by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 3, Funny

      I sense a Soviet Russia joke somewhere in here but I can't afford to hire a slashdotter to figure it out. Sad day...

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    4. Re:Who can afford it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, economy stimulates YOU!

    5. Re:Who can afford it? by whoda · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm still trying to figure out how all these people got the idea that it was God's given right to owe less on your mortgage than the house is worth.

    6. Re:Who can afford it? by barzok · · Score: 3, Funny

      You mean the Soviet Russian economy is based upon nudie bars?

    7. Re:Who can afford it? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but on the downside, you have to live in Oklahoma.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    8. Re:Who can afford it? by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ha, I *wish* I was joking. Sadly, no.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    9. Re:Who can afford it? by elashish14 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not really in a spending mood right now.

      This is called depression my friend

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    10. Re:Who can afford it? by Sporkinum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I was a dumbshit and made double payments on my house and paid it off this year in 11 years total. I should have let my rich uncle "Sam" pay it off for me. I also paid off my credit cards too. All a few months before the economy tanked. BTW.. its called living within your means.

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    11. Re:Who can afford it? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 3, Funny

      I mean, even Captain Kirk went to Outer Space to get away from Iowa!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    12. Re:Who can afford it? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Just keep paying it, and you'll be fine.

      When you're in that situation you have the bank by the balls - the worst they can do is take your house.. then they won't get the value of the loan back (or even decent amount of it, since sale by auction normally goes for far less than market value). Or they can encourage you to keep paying and get the whole value back plus interest.

      If you do get into difficulties they'll bend over backwards to help.. payment holidays, reduced payments, etc. because of this - banks are in the business of making money not flushing it down the toilet.

    13. Re:Who can afford it? by whoda · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whatever, it was all over the news here last week.
      "I owe more than my house is worth, dear Mr. Government, please make the banks re-value my mortgage."
      LOL

    14. Re:Who can afford it? by warsql · · Score: 2, Informative

      You now live in a house that you prefer over a house that you once valued at $1 million. If you haven't paid for it yet, then you still owe $1 million for it. That's bad HOW exactly?

      --
      878659 - yep its prime.
    15. Re:Who can afford it? by blackmonday · · Score: 2, Insightful

      my mortgage is now worth more than my house

      I don't understand the exact problem with this. Most people go out and buy cars with a 10 or 20 percent down, and they're "underwater" as soon as they drive off the lot. As you make your regular payments, the amount you're underwater gets overcome, over time. It may d=sound hard to believe, but everything will eventually recover a few years down the road. I'm an optimist, mostly because I've been living within my means and renting for the last 10 years.

  2. Just Hype by victim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cyber Monday is just marketing hype. The peak shopping days come later. The goal is to have a recognizable name that people will google up and read their customers' ads. I suppose they owe a big thank you to Soulskill for getting their message out.

    Maybe we can have a slashdot article for Sears' next "White Sale".

    1. Re:Just Hype by Troy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's a great example of belief creating reality, however. If people believe that the Monday after Thanksgiving is the biggest online shopping day of the year, then retailers are going to start offering "Cyber Monday Specials." This, in turn, will drive more people to shop that day. Rinse and repeat.

      From a marketing point of view, it is actually quite clever.

    2. Re:Just Hype by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was partly incorrect. I was wrong about Thursday. But if you look at the wiki link you provided, FDR did move up Thanksgiving one week to give retailers a longer shopping season:

      With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas.

    3. Re:Just Hype by nabsltd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was partly incorrect. I was wrong about Thursday. But if you look at the wiki link you provided, FDR did move up Thanksgiving one week to give retailers a longer shopping season

      The actual effect of moving Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the fourth Thursday in November isn't really that much.

      Only two years out of every seven have a November with 5 Thursdays, so 71% of the time there is no difference between "the 4th Thursday" and "the last Thursday".

    4. Re:Just Hype by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Funny

      Heh. Who said you can't learn something on Slashdot. I'd always thought it was always the 25th november.. didn't know they actually moved it around, like easter.

      That said "Cyber Monday" is a completely new one on me... is that when you're all supposed to start cybering with each other?

  3. I, for one, by Chysn · · Score: 2, Funny

    expect to get virtually trampled.

    --
    --I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
    -- See?
  4. Seriously, who makes up this crap? by movercast · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cyber Monday? Is there any proof that people spend more money on this day then any other? Show me the correlation coefficients of money spent online vs day of the year and then we'll talk.

    1. Re:Seriously, who makes up this crap? by thermian · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Cyber Monday? Is there any proof that people spend more money on this day then any other? Show me the correlation coefficients of money spent online vs day of the year and then we'll talk.

      Its just marketing hype, fairly obviously so. They want/desperately need to create new 'big shopping days' now that peoples buying habits are changing.

      --
      A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
    2. Re:Seriously, who makes up this crap? by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article doesn't claim otherwise. It states that "Silverman's organization actually invented Cyber Monday in late 2005 as a gimmick to jump-start online sales in the holiday season. The media soon hyped it, and while it's not the biggest online shopping day of the year, it has certainly caught on among e-tailers."

      In the article, a TigerDirect rep claims that at least for them, "Cyber Monday was the biggest day of the year for us last year--bigger than Black Friday,"

      I always thought the biggest day for brick and mortar stores, at least, was much closer to Christmas.

  5. Cyber Monday? by DrClownius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cyber Monday?

    I put on my robe and wizard hat

    --
    You use that word a lot.. I do not think it means what you think it means.
  6. Quake Mod? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I think Cyber Monday would be more fun
    if you had a Quake like interface to capture purchases
    and kill your competitors (fellow shoppers).

    "Announcing a PS3 special for $199 to a hardy victorious few."

  7. I guess Amazon is closed on weekends? by BigZaphod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had no idea I had to wait until Monday to start shopping online. I'm glad this Slashdot story showed up or else I might have just gone on buying stuff today and tomorrow and missed out on my chance to contribute to some meaningless statistics!

    --
    Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
  8. Cyber Monday for non-USA by primus1024 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wikipedia says:

    The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas....

    Origin of term

    The term "Cyber Monday" is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation...

  9. Re:Can we stop using the term "cyber"? by Kredal · · Score: 2, Funny

    My robe and wizard hat.

    --
    Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
  10. Re:Can we stop using the term "cyber"? by nprz · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://www.bash.org/?104383

    bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
    BritneySpears14: Aight.
    bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
    BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
    bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
    ...

  11. Virtual shopping too crowded by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

    Some fat lady beat me to the last space in the domain parking lot.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. Re:NewEgg beat everyone by mtmra70 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Their prices aren't high for mainstream stuff....shipping, yes, sort of.