The blitz is on
Black Friday has morphed into a two-day endeavor for shoppers – and something much larger for retailers.
“It’s all about preparation,” said Eddie Morris, store manager at Kmart in Peters Township. “If you prepare, you will have a great event, and customers are happy they’ve been able to find what they want.”
Adhering to the Boy Scout motto – “Be Prepared” – is a key for big-box chains such as Kmart and mid-sized to smaller businesses during this most bundleful time of the year. The Thanksgiving weekend, which now largely includes the holiday, is vital to many retailers, their prime meal ticket for the year. So, they have to be ready.
Black Friday, to some extent, is on retailers’ minds year-round. Morris, however, said Wednesday the intensity within his company – and others – picks up a month in advance.
“Over the last 30 days, like everyone else, we find out the list of items (the store will have),” Morris said. “Once we know, we hold them in a back room.”
His store, in essence, is kicking off Black Friday today at 6 a.m. and will remain open until 10 p.m. Friday – 40 consecutive hours.
Prepping for today’s opening, Morris assigned a crew to start stocking at 10 p.m. Wednesday and another crew four hours later.
“So when we open at 6,” he said Wednesday, “we’ll be ready to go.”
Ready to cash in, hopefully. Morris, who has been at this Kmart for a year, anticipates 3,500 to 4,000 Thanksgiving shoppers, a 60 percent increase over the normal Thursday traffic.
“On Black Friday, he added, “we’ll have around 75 percent more business than we normally do on Friday.”
More employees likewise will be on hand. Morris said that of the 61 on his payroll, 59 were scheduled to work Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Two teenagers whose families were out of town were the exceptions.
This year, other mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart and Target said they planned to hire more part-time help in anticipation of one of the busiest holiday shopping seasons in several years.
Shippers like UPS and FedEx also added more workers to try to avoid last year’s delays, when some Americans didn’t receive holiday orders in time for gift-giving.
The National Retail Federation is expecting sales in November and December to increase 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013’s actual 3.1 percent increase during the same time frame.
Dr. Audrey Guskey, associate professor of marketing at Duquesne University, disputed NRF’s rosy projections, estimating holiday sales would increase this year by 2.5 percent.
Guskey believes “there’s a huge disconnect” between retailers’ expectations for a big holiday retail season and the fact many Americans haven’t seen a wage increase in several years and consumer confidence surveys were down for part of the year.
A holiday spending survey released Monday by the Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association seemed to reflect the disparity between retailers’ optimism and consumers’ reality. The survey found this year, 10 percent of respondents would spend more, while 33 percent said they would spend less.
In the CFA/CUNA 2013 survey, 13 percent said they would spend more while 32 percent said they would spend less.
“Elements of our survey underscore the fact many consumers continue to reflect significant concerns about their personal finances – most especially in the realm of weak income gains,” said CUNA Senior Economist Mike Schenk. “Because of this, we expect the increase in holiday spending this season to be modest.”
Guskey, who opposes the move by retailers over the past few years to open stores Thanksgiving Day, said she also believes the strategy doesn’t produce more sales.
“If you’re shopping on Thanksgiving, you’re not shopping on Black Friday,” she said.
And with the trend of some major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target posting Black Friday sales fliers on their online sites weeks ago, and with others increasing store hours on Thanksgiving, “Black Friday has lost its luster,” she said, noting the busiest shopping day of the season doesn’t occur until Dec. 20.
When the Observer-Reporter asked online readers if they planned to shop on Black Friday, 85 percent said no. Another 88 percent said the growing trend of retailers offering Thanksgiving hours indicates the holiday shopping season starts too early.
Not all chains will be open on Thanksgiving.
In a news release, Ace Hardware Chief Executive Officer John Venhuizen said it once again chose not to open its stores on the holiday “so our employees and their families can enjoy time together giving thanks.”
Some shoppers think it’s an appropriate decision.
Danielle Marchesi of North Franklin Township plans to take advantage of Black Friday sales, but not today.
“Black Friday shopping has always been a tradition,” Marchesi wrote in an O-R online forum on the annual holiday shopping blitz, “but not before 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving. I refuse to shop at stores that are asking their employees to work on Thanksgiving.”
For the past three years, Julie Murphy of Cumberland Township, Greene County, and several friends headed out early on Black Friday to shop for their children.
Murphy said they’ll do the same this Friday, meeting for breakfast before honing in on their stores.
Despite her misgivings about the continual creep of the holiday shopping season, Guskey said consumers will find good bargains at both brick-and-mortar stores and online sites throughout the season.
“Shoppers are going to be spending and saving a lot of money,” she said, adding that prices are low.
“It’s going to be a shoppers’ paradise,” she said.
General Manager Mike Joyce anticipates Washington Crown Center being a center of activity – perhaps hyperactivity.
“We’re expecting a great crowd,” he said of the North Franklin Township mall, which will open at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving and operate continuously until 10 p.m. Friday. That’s a 28-hour run of retail, similar to the Black Friday marathon instituted in 2013.
Change has been the byword there in 2014, a major reason why Joyce said, “We’re really excited. We’ve had close to 85,000 square feet of new development this year.”
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft, Ross Dress for Less, Ulta cosmetics, Books A Million! and Encore By Shoe Dept. debuted there this year, and Kay Jewelers and Europe Nails refurbished their stores.
Tanger Outlets likewise will kick off Black Friday at 6 p.m. today and shut down at 10 p.m. Friday. But the wind-swept shopping emporium high above Racetrack Road will take a four-hour break, closing from 2 to 6 a.m. Friday.
General manager Jodi Dague said Tanger is putting more on shoppers’ plates this year, with the openings of such stores as the Michael Kors and H&M clothing shops.
“We have some destination stores we didn’t have last year,” she said. “Now that the weather has been colder, people are getting into the Christmas spirit. It will be interesting to see what happens.”
Online shopping gained momentum in recent times, but that doesn’t deter Dague.
“People still love to pick up and touch (merchandise). And society has such a need to have it now. Trends are showing that people don’t want to wait for something to come in the mail.
“Plus, I think it’s more personal if someone is shopping for a person, which supports why people are still going to malls.”
Jo Beth Barr is a businesswoman, but not at a mall. She owns Ooh La La in the Shoppes at Quail Acres, and said she and her retail contemporaries there refuse to compromise their holiday.
“None of us are open on Thanksgiving. We’re definitely family-oriented, we’re not a chain. We personally think it’s wrong,” said Barr, whose business is one of two that sell custom-made items within one shop called French Quarter. Chandelle Chaleur is the other.
The shops, however, will be active Black Friday – and virtually every day thereafter for a month. Starting Friday, Barr said, all of them will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week through Christmas.
Black Friday “is definitely our biggest time,” she said, “and Small Business Saturday (this weekend) is huge, too.”
South Strabane Township police Officer Carmine Molinaro urges shoppers to be patient and just enjoy the experience of Black Friday shopping.
The traffic situation this year is an unknown commodity.
“We are not sure what will happen because Tanger Outlets is opening at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving and then closing at 2 a.m. Friday before reopening at 6 a.m.,” Molinaro said. “But we are asking people to be on their best behavior and just enjoy the time-honored tradition of Black Friday shopping. No one needs to fight or argue over an item.”
Township police will have two officers at Tanger Outlets, one at Walmart in Trinity Point and one at Target in Strabane Square.