SOCIAL MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU ABOUT BLACK FRIDAY!!👇🏾👇🏾 A lot of people are shocked by some of the headlines stating “Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion in U.S. online sales, up 7.5% from last year” But this is a perfect example of how the media can be misleading But don’t worry.. I paid attention in economics class, and study media literacy… so you didn’t have to! Everyone saw that stores were empty, deals were not dealing, and inflation has been kicking our butt all year So let’s talk about the real numbers So the TOTAL increase in ALL sales for Black Friday 2023 is only 2.5% The article is saying that the portion of the sales that are online, increased by 7.5%… NOT THE TOTAL SALES (None of these numbers are adjusted to inflation btw) Inflation is around 3.2%… So if TOTAL sales increased 2.5%… but inflation is 3.2%… then that means there was actually a LOSS on Black Friday Because our dollars and purchasing power holds LESS value than they did in 2022 It’s also important to note that the amount of sales made through a buy now, pay later program has increased by 47% They may want us to believe our economy is in better shape than what it is… but companies and individuals are feeling the shift right now