Black Friday wanes but still pulls crowds
Todd McLemore roused his two sons before dawn to take them Black Friday shopping for the first time.
The Cypress resident usually shops online but needed to go to the local Academy Sports + Outdoors on Friday morning to buy camouflage jackets for the boys and Labrador retriever before a family duck hunting trip this weekend. McLemore, a first time Black Friday shopper, snagged Magellan-branded camo for a buyone, get-one half-off deal, saving him about about $150.
“Black Friday isn’t as hectic as I thought it’d be,” McLemore said.
His son, Sam, sounding a bit disappointed, added: “I thought there were going to be fights.”
People across the Houston area and the country went shopping on Black Friday — often early in the morning — lured by some of the
deepest discounts of the year. Despite the rise of e-commerce and year-round deals, plenty of consumers still headed to malls and stores on one of the the biggest shopping days of the year.
Money in their pockets
An estimated 164 million American are planning to shop in-store and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. The bulk of consumers — 116.4 million — are expected to shop on Black Friday this year, up slightly from 115.7 million last year.
“Consumers feel the economy is strong because they have more money in their pockets due to tax reform and wage increases since the recession,” said Ana Serafin Smith, spokeswoman for the retailers association. “We think it’ll be a strong retail holiday for retailers and consumers alike.”
About 500 shoppers waited outside the Target off Interstate 10 near Sawyer Heights before it opened at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, eager to take advantage of deals on TVs, electronics and toys, said Cameron Dennington, executive team leader of operations. Farther northwest, shoppers waited up to three hours outside the Tory Burch store at the Houston Premium Outlets early Friday morning to take advantage of a 50 percent off sale on handbags, shoes and accessories. Similar crowds were seen at Katy Mills mall on the west side.
At the Academy store in Cypress, shoppers started lining up outside around 3:30 a.m. Friday. By the time doors opened at 5 a.m., a crowd of about 50 was waiting, anxious to get inside and shop.
Store manager Scott Kruse said he wasn’t surprised by the crowds, which he estimated was a little larger than last year. Many shoppers were drawn to discounts on athletic apparel and gear, as well as firearms, which Academy does not sell online, he said.
“Black Friday, it’s a tradition,” Kruse said. “A lot of people turn it into a family event. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.”
Still, Black Friday no longer carries the same weight it once did when the holiday shopping season truly began the day after Thanksgiving. Today, some retailers, such as Target, Walmart and Best Buy, open on Thanksgiving.
Many other stores offer deep discounts well before Black Friday to attract shoppers in an increasingly competitive market. Kohl’s, for example, held a one-day “Black Friday event” on Nov. 1 and began offering Black Friday deals earlier this week.
Diminishing significance
These trends, as well as the growth of online shopping, mean Black Friday is no longer a bellwether for the holiday shopping season.
On Black Friday last year, online spending hit $5 billion, up nearly 17 percent from 2016, according to Adobe Digital Insights, a market research firm. This year, Black Friday online sales are on track to hit over $6.4 billion, nearly matching last year’s Cyber Monday — the biggest online shopping day of the year.
“The significance of Black Friday as a single day is diminishing and may almost disappear in a few years,” said Venky Shankar, research director at Texas A&M University’s Center for Retailing Studies. “Millennials recognize Cyber Monday more than Black Friday.”
For inveterate bargain hunters, heading to the mall at the crack of dawn on Friday still offers two things online shopping just can’t: an adrenaline rush and a chance to spend time with family while standing in line or picking over bargain bins.
“There’s an experience behind it, instead of just doing it alone by yourself,” said Ashley Reichert, 31, of Westchase, who went shopping with her sister at the Galleria on Friday.
Houston’s Black Friday event attracted shoppers from far and wide.
Rita Coker, 48, and her daughter, Madison Goolsby, 22, drove from Bryan at 1 a.m. Friday to take advantage of the wider range of stores in Houston. Ssu Ling Chen, a 27-year-old flight attendant for Taiwanese airline Eva Air, specifically requested for a flight route between Taiwan and Houston, just so she could shop here on Black Friday.
Chen and her fellow flight crew members took a Lyft from their Galleria-area hotel to the Houston Premium Outlets early Friday morning to buy presents for family in Asia.
“My family, they made a lot of requests, ‘Please buy these,’ ” Chen said, adding she brought an extra suitcase for family gifts.
Black beats red
For the past decade, Dennis Navarro has flown from his native Honduras to Houston every two months to visit family and stock up on some $5,000 worth of tactical gear and camouflage at Columbia Sportswear and Academy stores to sell at his outdoor clothing store in Honduras called Inasa. On Black Friday, however, the reseller spends $2,000 more so he can capitalize on Black Friday discounts.
Honduras has a similar Black Friday holiday called Fin de Semana Rojo, or “Red Weekend,” but the discounts aren’t nearly as deep Navarro said.
“It’s a little tedious,” Navarro said of shopping overnight on Black Friday in the U.S. “But it’s worth it.”