Shopping looser on Black Friday

Thanksgiving openings thin store crowds

The day after Thanksgiving Day, known as “Black Friday,” is supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the year.
The day after Thanksgiving Day, known as “Black Friday,” is supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the year.

When Black Friday shopper Shelly Washburn walked into Target early Friday morning, she encountered an unexpected scene.

At 4:30 a.m. the aisles of the store on South University Avenue in Little Rock were lined with the retailer’s “doorbuster” deals - televisions, Keurig coffee machines and DVDs - but one thing was missing: people.

“It’s kind of strange not having all of the crowds,” said Washburn, 46, who was shopping with her friend Stephanie Osburn and their two daughters.

Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it kicks off the Christmas shopping season, when most retailers begin to see a profit for the year.

Some retailers, anxious to attract more shoppers because of a shorter Christmas season, started Black Friday deals sooner by opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day. Shoppers accustomed to hitting the stores in the predawn hours Friday said the crowds were thinner than last year and more manageable because so many more shops opened earlier and remained open longer.

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Allen Wood (front, right) was first in line Thursday outside the Best Buy in North Little Rock. Wood waited nearly seven hours for the store’s Thanksgiving Day opening.

Last year, sales on Thanksgiving Day rose 55 percent from the previous year to $810 million, as more stores opened on the holiday, according to research firm ShopperTrak. But sales dropped 1.8 percent to $11.2 billion on Black Friday, though it still was the biggest shopping day last year.

Store sales numbers weren’t made available Friday. The National Retail Federation said 140 million people planned to shop during the four-day holiday weekend.

Osburn, who had tagged along with Washburn for her first Black Friday shopping experience, said she was disappointed to find only a few straggling shoppers in Target.

“I came for the experience, not the sales,” she said, showing a picture of an empty aisle she posted to the social-networking site Facebook.

Camille Roberts, 49, of Pine Bluff, who was shopping with her friend Leanne Roberts, 42, at the west Little Rock Best Buy, said she was OK with the thin crowd of shoppers. “I was complaining it messed up Black Friday because it’s on Thanksgiving,” Roberts said. “But it worked out well. It’s been worth it money wise.”

Toni Patton, 45, of Bentonville and her daughter,Michaela, 17, said of the three stores they visited, the Belk department store in Rogers at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving was the most hectic.

“It was like a madhouse - people were fighting over boots, and we were all packed in like sardines,” Patton said. “When we walked out, we said never again.”

Because the Christmas shopping season is shorter this year, retailers are being more aggressive with marketing to get people into their stores, analysts said.

“Retailers are in for a very competitive holiday season,” said Rick Patel, an analyst with Stephens Inc. “There are six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. … We’re expecting retailers to be very promotional this holiday.”

Patel said it’s too early to know how the shorter shopping season will affect sales, but “just from the surface, it certainly looks like these companies have their work cut out for them.”

Retail sales in November and December are expected to rise 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion, compared with last year’s increase of 3.5 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, which posted its forecast during the government shutdown in October.

Stores offered many Christmas discounts before Black Friday, and some are being extended through the weekend until Cyber Monday, a name created as part of a marketing campaign to urge people to shop online the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The Best Buy in west Little Rock offered sales on different electronics at 6 p.m. Thursday, when the store opened, at midnight and at 10 a.m. Friday to “keep the excitement going,” said general manager Lee Fannon.

Big retailers, such as Wal-Mart, opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Target stores and department store J.C. Penney opened at 8 p.m.

A few stores decided to remain closed on Thanksgiving.

Dillard’s Inc. opened at 8 a.m. Friday, spokesman Julie Bull said.

“We believe our associates need that time with their family,” she said.

Washburn and Osburn, both of Little Rock, said they didn’t visit any stores before their 4:30 a.m. trip to Target because Thanksgiving is not a day for shopping.

“It’s Thanksgiving,” Washburn said. “You’re supposed to be home with family, not out shopping. “

A slow economy also is motivating stores to open earlier this year, said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz and Associates Inc., a retail consulting and investment banking firm.

It’s not an irrational decision, Davidowitz said. “Retailers think that if one does it, they all have to do it.”

On Friday, Target said in a news release that lines at its stores stretched several blocks before opening Thursday night and traffic remained strong several hours after the store opened.

Wal-Mart said in a news release Friday that the company had more than 10 million register transactions in its stores between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. and served more than 22 million customers on Thanksgiving Day.

Michael Kinney, 21, of Winslow and his friend Jessica Rogers, 19, of Rogers were two of the customers to visit one of the retailer’s stores on the holiday.

They began their venture to purchase an Xbox One at 8 p.m. at a Wal-Mart in Rogers but were surprised to find they needed a wristband to make a purchase. Frustrated, the duo traveled to the nearby Best Buy to see whether they could purchase it there.

Once they arrived, they found that the sale for the Xbox didn’t begin until midnight. They said they didn’t want to wait, but their desire for the newly released console kept them there.

“I feel really guilty for shopping on Thanksgiving, and I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for the Xbox One,” Kinney said.

“We really should be thankful for what we have, but instead we’re out buying the latest console,” Rogers said.

Information for this article was contributed by Anne D’Innocenzio of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/30/2013

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