Every day on the calendar is called something and most are days for a very select group of people. Their organization has petitioned the government to name a day for them and the government does because it creates goodwill. The organization is happy with the result and all is good in the world. Some days happen because of where they are in calendar year. Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times people see their families, which allows Christmas to travel less or somewhere else. After spending time together on Thursday, people went shopping on Friday for an outing. The malls always need a reason to sell merchandise helped with discounts for Christmas shopping and Black Friday was born.

In an article from Reuters, from an investor point of view, it is not whether a day is named after something or someone it is does it increase sales? It turns out yes they do. Americans spent roughly $10.8 billion online on Black Friday up 10.2% from last year. On Cyber Monday, they spent another $13.3 billion up 7.3% from 2023, according to Adobe.

According to data firm Facteus, which tracks online and instore spending in the US analyzing data from banks, credit unions, payment processors and fintech companies. Amazon increased sales 6% from a year ago. Walmart was up 3% while Target and Best Buy saw declines.

The top performers China based Temu and Shein.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as an investor is important to have some cynicism in you – while you hope for the best, you want to see results. There are many organizations that can give you results to see how your company executed their strategies, you need to ask did they? If they did and you are relatively happy, then keep on holding the company. If things are not as good, one of the aspects is looking at alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.