By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO and MAE ANDERSON
AP Retail Writer
This year's Black Friday
shoppers were split into two distinct groups: those who wanted to fall
into a turkey-induced slumber and those who'd rather shop instead.
Stores typically open in the wee
hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving that's named Black
Friday because of retail folklore that it's traditionally when merchants
turn a profit for the year. But after testing how shoppers would
respond to earlier hours last year, stores such as Target and Toys R Us
this year opened as early as Thanksgiving evening. That led shoppers on a
mission to find the best Black Friday deals to ask a difficult
question: Deal with the crowds now or later?
By the time Lori Chandler, 54,
and her husband, Sam, 55, reached the Wal-Mart in Greenville, S.C. early
Friday, they had already hit several stores, including Target and Best
Buy. In fact, they had been holiday shopping since midnight.
"It's a tradition," Lori said as
she looked at some toys she bought for her four grandchildren. Sam,
smiling, agreed: "We've learned over the years, you have to stand in
line early and pray."
Elizabeth Garcia, a sales rep
from the Bronx borough of New York City, decided for a later shopping
start at about 3:30 a.m. at Toys R Us in New York's Times Square.
Garcia, who has three children ages three, five and seven, said she
specifically decided on the later time to avoid the crowds on
Thanksgiving when the store opened at 8 p.m. She believes that was the
best decision: Last year, Garcia almost got into a fight over a Tinker
Bell couch, but this year things were much calmer.
"This year I wasn't about to kill people," she said.
The earlier hours are an effort
by stores to make shopping as convenient as possible for Americans, who
they fear won't spend freely during the two-month holiday season in
November and December because of economic uncertainty. Many shoppers are
worried about high unemployment and a package of tax increases and
spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" that will take effect in
January unless Congress passes a budget deal by then. At the same time,
Americans have grown more comfortable shopping on websites that offer
cheap prices and the convenience of being able to buy something from
smartphones, laptops and tablet computers from just about anywhere.
That's put added pressure on
brick-and-mortar stores, which can make up to 40 percent of their annual
revenue during the holiday shopping season, to give consumers a
compelling reason to leave their homes. That's becoming more difficult:
the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, estimates that
overall sales in November and December will rise 4.1 percent this year
to $586.1 billion, or about flat with last year's growth. But the online
part of that is expected to rise 15 percent to $68.4 billion, according
to Forrester Research.
As a result, brick-and-mortar
retailers have been trying everything they can to lure consumers into
stores. Some stores tested the earlier hours last year, but this year
more retailers opened their doors late on Thanksgiving or at midnight on
Black Friday. In addition to expanding their hours, many also are
offering free layaways and shipping, matching the cheaper prices of
online rivals and updating their mobile shopping apps with more
information.
"Every retailer wants to beat
everyone else," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research
Group, a research firm based in Charleston, S.C. "Shoppers love it."
Indeed, some holiday shoppers
seemed to find stores' earlier hours appealing. Julie Hansen, a
spokeswoman at Mall of America in Minneapolis, said 30,000 people showed
up for the mall's midnight opening, compared with 20,000 last year. She
noted that shoppers are coming in waves, and sales aren't just being
shifted around.
"This is additional dollars," Hansen said.
Hansen said stores that didn't
participate in the midnight opening last year learned a lesson. Last
year, 100 of the 520 Mall of America tenants opened their doors at
midnight. This year, that figure doubled.
About 11,000 shoppers were in
lines wrapped around Macy's flagship store in New York City's Herald
Square when it opened at midnight on Black Friday. That's up from an
estimated 9,000 to 10,000 shoppers who showed up the store's midnight
opening last year.
Joan Riedewald, a private aide
for the elderly, and her four children ages six to 18, were among them.
By that time, she already had spent about $100 at Toys R Us, which
opened at 8 p.m., and planned to spend another $500 at Macy's before
heading to Old Navy.
"I only shop for sales," she said.
Carey Maguire, 33, and her
sister Caitlyn Maguire, 21, showed up at the same Target about two hours
before it opened. Their goal was to buy several Nook tablet computers,
which were on sale for $49. But while waiting in line they were also
using their iPhone to do some online buying at rival stores.
"If you're going to spend, I want to make it worth it," said Caitlyn Maguire, a college student.
By the afternoon on
Thanksgiving, there were 11 shoppers in a four-tent encampment outside a
Best Buy store near Ann Arbor, Mich., that opened at midnight. The
purpose of their wait? A $179 40-inch Toshiba LCD television is worth
missing Thanksgiving dinner at home.
Jackie Berg, 26, of Ann Arbor,
arrived first with her stepson and a friend Wednesday afternoon, seeking
three of the televisions. The deal makes the TVs $240 less than their
normal price, so Berg says that she'll save more than $700.
"We'll miss the actual being there with family, but we'll have the rest of the weekend for that," she said.
But some shoppers decided to
stick to Black Friday. Nicole Page of Bristol, Conn., shopped with her
sister at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, Conn., at about 4:45 a.m. on Black
Friday. Page, who recently finished school and started working as a
nurse, bought an electric fireplace for $200 that she said was
originally $600. Her shopping cart also had candy canes, a nail clipper
for her dog and other stocking stuffers.
Page said she and her sister
stuck with the Black Friday tradition; They've shopped in the early
morning of Black Friday in previous years.
"We try to make a tradition of it. It's kind of exciting," she said.
------
Mae Anderson and Anne
D'Innocenzio reported from New York. Mitch Weiss contributed from
Greenville, S.C. Stephen Singer contributed from Connecticut. Tom
Krisher contributed to this report from Ann Arbor, Mich., and Toledo,
Ohio.
Copyright
2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
