Sint shopped earlier this year, ‘Black Friday may have had an influence’

Sinterklaas bought presents long before this year’s gorgeous evening, presumably because he still wanted to take advantage of last week’s Black Friday deals. Normally, he only goes to the shop for gifts on the Saturday before Pakjesavond or on December 5, says the Dutch Payments Association.

On Thursday, the number of payments over the counter was 15% higher than on an average Thursday, the number of transactions in online stores increased by 10%. This made it the busiest shopping day for Sinterklaas so far. The difference between Saturday December 3rd and a normal Saturday was much less than 5%.

Although most of the gifts have already been bought, the Payments Association thinks that the shopping streets may also be busy tomorrow due to the Sinterklaas shopping.

The Black Friday deals festival has likely influenced shopping behavior. Yesterday, two days before Sinterklaas, 20.3 million payments were made in Dutch shops for 577 million euros. A week earlier, when many retailers still had Black Friday offers, there were 21.4 million transactions totaling €635 million.

Despite the many purchases, the criticisms of the action day are growing: