If you find yourself near New York City’s Times Square this holiday season, among the bright lights and dozens of screens you will probably see a new set of National Retail Federation advertisements. Beginning yesterday, and running throughout the holiday season, an NRF ad will be running on the enormous screens towering over what many consider to be the Mecca of holiday shopping.
NRF created the ads in order to thank shoppers, on behalf of the retail industry, for continuing to shop and support one of the most crucial industries in the country. Arguably no other industry has the same type of interaction with consumers as retail, so during these tough economic times America’s retailers want to simply say, “Thank you for shopping.”
The holiday season is particularly vital for the retail industry, with $466 billion of retail’s overall sales occurring between November and December. Retail could not continue to support over 42 million U.S. jobs if it weren’t for the shoppers that continue to enter stores to buy decorations for their homes, food for their tables and gifts for their loved ones. As Ellen Davis told CNN, these are tough economic times and consumer spending will understandably be impacted, but the retail industry continues lead the recovery by positively impacting the U.S. economy.