Some Delicious Statistics for Thanksgiving 2014

I’m going to tell you up front, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Mainly because, I don’t feel like Thanksgiving is one day, it’s really the whole weekend.  Every day is great in it’s own way, and coincidentally, Thursday, Friday and Saturday have some really amazing statistics to go along with them, and as you all probably know, I love statistics.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is a day full of football, naps, and tons of food. Did you know that on Thanksgiving over 51,000,000 turkeys are consumed in the United States? With some quick math, let’s say the average size of a turkey is 15 pounds, we see that over 765,000,000 pounds of turkey are consumed on Thanksgiving. To put that in perspective, that’s the same weight as 1700 Statues of Liberty. That’s over 300,000 VW beatles. That’s just a little bit more than the weight of the Empire State Building. All consumed by Americans, in one day.

Black Friday

Friday’s usually a big shopping day for the people that enjoy stampeding crowds rushing towards a no-name 40” tv, frantic driving between stores, and spending a ton of money. For the non-shopping type, it’s usually a day of leftovers, board games, football and debating politics with your Uncle Murle.

Here’s the crazy thing about all that shopping. In 2013, on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, brick and mortar stores had 12.3 billion dollars in sales. That’s a lot of money. If you’re a small business and you’re willing to have crazy hordes descend on your store, you should take advantage of Black Friday.

Small Business Saturday

Saturday’s is usually a lazy day for my family, sometimes we’ll go watch a movie, go on a hike, go see the sites in your old hometown. One of the best things about Saturday is Small Business Saturday. This is the day where people can find deals in locally owned shops, meet business owners, and support your local economy.

Small Business Saturday was started by American Express back in 2010, and it’s caught on. Communities across the nation are hosting events that bring some of that shopping money back into the local economy. 41 governors have given proclamations about Small Business Saturday. 43 US Senators have pledged their support. 77% of people surveyed said they planned on shopping at a small business on that day. If you want to support your local economy and help boost small business, go out this Saturday and support small business.

Alright everybody, I’m going to go pig out on turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I won’t be heading out to fight the hordes, my wife’s the brave Black Friday shopper, but I hope to see you guys out there for Small Business Saturday. From all of us at Lendio we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Statistics:
http://grasshopper.com/resources/articles/small-business-saturday-statistics/
http://www.businessinsider.com/2013-black-friday-stats-2013-12