As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and more!

Today was “Cyber Monday.” Did You Spend?

by Flexo on November 27, 2006

in Consumer, Shopping

The marketing gods have dubbed the Monday after Thanksgiving “Cyber Monday” due to the increased online sales with typical e-commerce retailers like Amazon.com as people stumble or roll back to their offices. Rather than getting back to business, they’re not in the mood for work and would rather shop online, possibly looking for deals.

Rick Aristotle Munarriz from The Motley Fool says Cyber Monday is a joke. There weren’t any deals for virtual-only stores to be found. It’s the standard brick-and-mortar stores that are latching onto the Cyber Monday hype. Wal-Mart is one example. CNN reported on a week-long sale to “celebrate” Cyber Monday.

How much did you spend on gifts online today, and where did you spend the money? Were there any deals to be found? Or is Cyber Monday just a poor marketing excuse and a myth? (More credit card transactions were posted a week after Cyber Monday last year.)

VN:F [1.7.4_987]
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)


Email this article Email this article Print this article Print this article
Share this article: Twitter | Tip'd | Facebook | Delicious | Reddit | Digg
About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

If you enjoyed this article, get the free RSS feed or get daily emails.

Join the free Consumerism Commentary newsletter. Enter your email address here to receive weekly emails with behind-the-scenes information, exclusive giveaways, and money tips.



Related Entries on Consumerism Commentary

  • No online spending today for me, I have to take my car in after work to get some work done which is going to put a dent in any spending that was to come this week.

    But I think it is largely a myth, at least the sales part. I have no doubt a lot of people do online shopping on the first monday after thanksgiving, maybe due to using the internet at work, but it is nothing really out of the ordinary.
  • jim
    I spent nothing too and I agree that it's just a myth... I didn't see any sales close to the deals on Black Friday (and I didn't get anything on BF either because I'm not getting up at 5am to fight with people over things anymore).
  • Walmart had a few sales up, but nothing that great. If anyone else had any goodies for sale I didn't find it. I think they are trying to hype something up that just doesn't really exist...
  • I spent some money on Amazon last night, but only because I've been meaning to buy a new keyboard for the past few weeks so that I don't have to take the one off of the desktop for the wife when she has papers due and needs a better keyboard for the laptop. I finally remembered to order it yesterday.

    I'm not sure how much that has to do with cyber monday. I haven't had any time to browse and shop today.
  • I didn't see anything that great today. I did all my Cyber Monday shopping on Black Friday.

    I'm going to say that Cyber Monday is a myth.
  • No shopping for me today. I'll cast my vote in the "myth" box as well.

    I did, however, take my wife and daughter out to eat. Maybe I got confused, and forgot that I was supposed to spend that money at Amazon.
  • No shopping for me. A brief article on Yahoo News reminded me it was Cyber Monday. I looked for a few deals on my lunch break, but there were nothing of much interest. I would say that Cyber Monday is more of a marketing term then an actual event.
  • No online spending for me today, either. But I did spend in a physical store (Williams Sonoma), because it wasn't going to be any cheaper to buy the item on their online site because there were no deals to be found, and their shipping charges are horrendous :(
  • The only thing "cyber" about my Monday was that I spent all of it working in front of the computer. Our company recently installed a new proxy server that makes shopping from work much more difficult.

    Anyone know of a good way to get to eBay through a corporate proxy?
  • The only thing that I spent was nine hours of my life getting from point A to point B on a work trip. And to think I get to do it all over again (except backwards) tomorrow!
  • No cyber monday spending here. I think the media (to the delight of credit card companies) are simply trying to come up with yet another day that we need to spend money on. I don't like being pressured into making a purchase regardless of the reason and this sounds like it might become one in the future if it's hyped.
  • $0 :) After looking at a few websites, I was almost certain it's a big scam..nothing more.
  • Did not spend a dime, but definitely did browse over a few things. Did not notice any particularly good deals on either merchandise or shipping.
  • I didn't spend anything, mostly because I was too busy catching up from vacation and getting back into the swing of things.

    Isn't it weird that most people got 4 days off and then are expected to spent hours online to buy stuff while they have high-speed at work?
  • Actually, one of my favorite real-life retailers had a 30% off sale. Because it was automatic, I could combine it with a $50 off coupon, and so I got about $225 worth of clothes for $105 (money that I had budgeted for clothes anyway). Nice.

    On the whole, though...I'd still have to come down on the side of "myth."
  • I think Cyber Monday is a myth. I went to some of the most prominent retailer's websites, and it was no better than any other regular weekend sale. Best Buy didn't even lower their prices much, they just offered all of these free-bees when you purchased a certain item or spend a certain amount of money. Cyber Monday certainly never compares to Black Friday, and it probably never will.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: Money Magazine: 8 Smart Year-End Moves, Part 1

Next post: Money Magazine: 8 Smart Year-End Moves, Part 2