Small, big businesses prosper on Black Friday
There were no eager shoppers seen sleeping in tents outside of Driscoll’s Sports in El Centro on Thursday night.
In fact, the store didn’t have an early opening time or brought in any extra employees, though continued to be a go-to store for Black Friday shopping.
“That’s just the way we do it,” explained Driscoll’s owner Brett Driscoll. “The more the big box stores started doing the, staying open until 3 a.m. thing, we kind of backed off and we just have regular hours.”
The owner noted that since the nationwide recession about 10 years ago, Black Friday hasn’t been what it used to be. To his surprise, the store saw a positive turnout in customers Friday compared to years past.
“It’s been pretty rough but I do notice an uptick this year. It seems so far this Black Friday we actually have customers in the store shopping and looking for deals,” noticed Driscoll, who created the store, located at 1470 W. State Street, alongside his parents in 1979.
At just 15-years-old, Driscoll convinced his parents that the Imperial Valley needed a store that offered trendy clothes, as there were no stores that offered such at the time.
Almost 40 years later, more big businesses have since made their way into the Valley, yet the niche Driscoll’s was founded on has still been its key to success to this day.
“They’ve really hurt the mom-and-pop-businesses for sure, but I look at them like a big battleship. It’s harder for them to turn around, and we’re the little speedboat that can dodge and do things a little differently,” described Driscoll on his store, which has grown into a shopping staple for local residents because of its ability to stock what’s trending at a faster pace than big-named stores are able to.
One of the most memorable Black Friday discounts the store had in recent years was offering UGG boots at half price, ultimately selling about 500 pairs throughout the day, remembered Driscoll.
“And a couple years ago it was TOMS (shoes) for women,” said the owner. “Rainbow Sandals seem to be the hot thing right now. There’s always those hot things that we’re able to capitalize on and offer to customers.”
While Driscoll’s offers surf, skating and sporting goods, a large appeal to shopping on Black Friday is the discounts on electronics. Some consumers plan what they want to purchase by the beginning of the year or even line up outside a store days prior.
El Centro resident Martha Lopez didn’t research any discounts before arriving to Target on Friday afternoon, though still walked out with a 50-inch flat-screen television at a price she was more than satisfied with.
Lopez had originally made her way into the store with her mother only to search for Christmas decorations that were on sale.
“During the year, my mom accidentally broke my sister’s TV. She saw the TV and wanted to buy the TV and we got it since it was on special,” said Lopez.
The El Centro resident deems that the frenzy of customers Black Friday tends to bring is too much, and even so when people line up outside of stores on Thanksgiving Day.
“I think that’s way too much. Right now there’s no line that’s why I brought my mom,” stated Lopez, who mentioned she saw people camping at Best Buy since Tuesday.
“That’s crazy, not spending time with your family just to go get it. Sometimes even during the year there’s specials,” advised Lopez, who proudly spent Thursday night having Thanksgiving dinner with her family with no intentions of shopping.
While a number of stores have offered purchasing online and picking up the item to avoid making line, it proved to be a hassle this year for Mexicali residents Rosie Bedolla and her husband Luis Valenzuela.
The two had been looking forward to purchasing a new television since the beginning of the year.
The couple proceeded to place an order at 2 a.m. Thursday online for a new television at Best Buy. Scheduled to pick it up Friday afternoon, Valenzuela received an e-mail in the morning stating that the TV was no longer in stock.
“How is it on stock online but you don’t have it?” questioned Bedolla to Best Buy’s customer service, who referred her to talk to staff at the store.
After arriving at the store, the TV was said to not be available, and the only option staff gave the couple was to travel to San Diego to pick up a similar model.
“They did not even give us a discount or options, we said no and we picked another TV. We’ve waited the whole year for this event,” asserted Bedolla, who ended up selecting a better model of a television, though paid $400 more than what they originally paid online.
While the hectic experience of Black Friday may had been bad for some shoppers, Seattle resident Linda Hason enjoyed every second of it.
Hanson and her husband have been traveling down to the Valley for the past 17 years to vacation in a warmer climate.
Never having participated in Black Friday prior, the two were drawn from their vacation home at Fountain of Youth RV Resort in Niland to search Best Buy after the Roku application on their TV stopped working.
Without searching for any discounts prior, Hanson and her husband were able walk out of the store with a good deal on a new TV.
“I saw people were lined up in tents so I wouldn’t come out. I usually avoid it, but we came out and we were quite pleased,” described Hanson on her Black Friday experience. “They did a nice job. In fact, I might try it earlier from now on.”