Is Black Friday losing its luster?
After years of Christmas sales creeping into November, then inexplicably overtaking Thanksgiving Day, it seems as though the luster is fading on Black Friday shopping.
Unlike the past two years, where it seemed that every major retailer was urging shoppers to push away from the Thanksgiving dinner table just seconds after inhaling pumpkin pie to start shopping in the afternoon, many stores this year made it a point not to open on Thanksgiving.
Nordstrom not only decided to close its doors Thanksgiving, but also wait until the following day to display Christmas decorations. Locally, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Gabriel Brothers all remained closed Thanksgiving Day to allow employees to spend the holiday with family.
Audrey Guskey, an associate professor of marketing at Duquesne University, has followed the shopping trends locally and nationally, and told Observer-Reporter business editor Michael Bradwell online shopping and pre-Black Friday sales are spreading out the shopping season.
“I think the retailers pushed it to the limit when they started opening stores on Thanksgiving,” Guskey said.
It seems as though the tide is turning when it comes to holiday shopping, which hopefully is good news for local retailers trying to turn a profit in an incredibly difficult commercial landscape.
These small businesses are trying to capitalize with a litany of events and marketing opportunities.
For the fourth year in a row, more than a dozen retailers in the Waynesburg Merchants Guild participated in Small Business Saturday this past weekend and also are pushing a “Naughty and Nice” sales initiative that runs until Dec. 22.
The upcoming Waynesburg Holiday Open House this Friday night will also be an opportunity to “shine a spotlight and help the businesses and stores that are already here,” event co-chairwoman Caitlin Carlisle explained recently.
“It’s really to put a focus on the businesses that are already there and bring people in to show them what we have to offer,” Carlisle said.
Waynesburg will also, for the first time, hold a “Christmas in the ‘Burg” celebration Saturday night, just hours after the Christmas parade.
Meanwhile, local businesses in Washington held their first Small Business Saturday this past weekend. Whether it is viewed as a success should not hinge on the amount of shoppers who came out or even the amount of merchandise purchased.
Instead, it’s an indication that local merchants are finding new ways to promote themselves and the area’s business districts.
Just as shoppers appear to be moving away from major retail sales around Black Friday, however, there appears to be more interest in online sales, including today’s Cyber Monday deals. More online promotions are pushing shoppers to the Web to find savings.
While it’s certainly convenient to browse the Web for cyberdeals, it’s crucial that shoppers also recognize the importance of supporting small businesses in their own towns.
It still might be an uphill battle for small-town retailers to lure holiday shoppers, but these new “buying local” initiative show creativity and passion that hopefully will pay dividends for them and the area’s economy.