Cyber Monday and Public Radio

Today is Cyber Monday, a now official on-line shopping event. Google News has links to hundreds of articles on it. NPR reported on it today during Morning Edition.

Cyber Monday follows its brick and mortar predecessor, Black Friday. Despite all of the publicity, as an ABC News article points out, neither of these days is the biggest shopping day of the year. That's always the Saturday before Christmas. It turns out that no matter how hard retailers try to get people to buy early, most shoppers procrastinate.

Those of us in public radio recognize this pattern. It's how listeners behave during pledge drives.