SHOPPERS SEEK HOLIDAY DEALS
Black Friday endures despite growth of online
Not long after Thanksgiving dinner plates were cleared, Black Friday deals lured people from the comfort of their homes to the hustle and bustle at Tempe Marketplace.
Shoppers swarmed the mall and other stores near McClintock Drive and Rio Salado Parkway in hopes of scoring deals on TVs, appliances, clothes and other hard-to-pass-up steals and deals. They eagerly swarmed the Target on Thursday night before a smaller batch of customers slowly trickled in during Black Friday’s early hours.
Employees were outnumbered by a 10-1 ratio, but they and the swarms of shoppers pulsing through the aisles were generally calm, collected and organized.
“The feeling is great; it seems like everyone is here with their family,” said Omar Khalil, a Target spokesman. “This is just a celebration of Thanksgiving, being able to come out and celebrate with your loved ones. It’s a great time, and they’re really enjoying the great deals.”
Nearly 20 percent of retail sales last year occurred during the holiday season, and it’s expected that shop-
“It’s a great time, and they’re really enjoying the great deals.” Omar Khalil
Target spokesman, on Black Friday shoppers
pers will spend roughly $717 billion to $721 billion this year, an uptick of 4.3 percent to 4.8 percent over 2017, according to the National Retail Federation.
Black Friday has waned in recent years, its power dulled as retailers launch holiday sales days or weeks earlier, with many stores opening their doors in the midst of the Thanksgiving Day feast. And since 2014, the Saturday before Christmas, known as “Super Saturday,” has surpassed Black Friday in sales, a trend that the NRF expects to continue this year.
But Black Friday still packs a punch. Of the more than 164 million Americans who intend to shop over Thanksgiving weekend, 71 percent, or 116 million, have said they intend to buy and browse on Black Friday — more than any other day, the NRF says.
Leaving the store Thursday night with her husband, daughter and granddaughter, Sharon Sanchez said she went to Target because she was worried she’d miss out on the sales.
“I was afraid the deals would be gone,” Sanchez said, turning her neck toward the crowds in the 10-minutelong checkout line that wound through cosmetics and toward the pharmacy. “It’s just crazy.”
Ted Strickland and his wife, Jeanette, stood in line with a “Stranger Things” sweatshirt — their big find for the night — along with a few other routine household items.
“I did see a TV I wanted, but she’s not going to let me buy a TV,” Ted said, smiling at his wife. They decided to go to Target after dinner and said it didn’t bother them that the store was open on the family-tradition-focused holiday.
“I don’t get upset about it. I feel like I hope the people volunteered to work it because they get paid more,” Ted said. “I feel like people have fake outrage about it more than real outrage.”
California residents Terri and Jim Derr claimed a spot near the front of the line at Best Buy hours before the sun rose Friday morning. The only item on their list was a half-price smart TV their son had his eye on. He was staked out in line at another Best Buy.
“After this, it’s back to bed for us,” Jim Derr joked.
The Tempe Target closed for the night at 1 a.m. Friday. More than 50 employees spent the next six hours scrambling to refill the shelves and fill online orders before the next wave of shoppers arrived for Black Friday.
But there was no early-morning rush: A small line of two dozen early birds bundled up in warm, comfy clothes crept around the front of the building. Others, such as Reanna Murray, stayed huddled inside warm cars in the parking lot while they waited for the doors to open again at 7 a.m.
Murray arrived at the store at 6 a.m. in hopes of snagging a TV. She tried to get her hands on one at another Target on Thanksgiving night, but they were sold out by the time she arrived.
She figured she would give it another shot early Friday morning. Murray was surprised to see the low turnout on a day heralded as the biggest shopping event of the year.
“Looks like I’m going to get my TV,” she said while glancing at the few people standing behind the barricade line.
More shoppers opted to buy their bigticket items online to be picked up in store, Target employee Kristin Good explained. Overall, Good said, sales increased from last year despite the stunted turnout early Friday.
Most sales still happen in actual stores, but online spending continues to grow at a faster clip. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Cyber Monday is expected to be the winner, with online spending forecast to grow 17.6 percent to $7.8 billion, according to software company Adobe Analytics. But Black Friday is projected not to be far behind, with a projected uptick in online sales of 17.2 percent to $5.9 billion.
During the full holiday season, more than $1 out of every $6 that is spent will be doled out online, amounting to $124.1 billion, according to Adobe. That’s a 14.8 percent jump over the previous year, and significantly more than the 2.7 percent spending uptick expected offline.
Digital research firm eMarketer has similar figures, saying that e-commerce spending will rise 16.6 percent to $123.73 billion, making up 12.3 percent of total holiday retail sales — the largest chunk ever.
Inside the Best Buy at Tempe Marketplace, shoppers carried out large boxes with bright red tags showing how much they saved, sometimes measured in the hundreds of dollars.
Aisles were packed with shoppers, and the lines wrapped around the store. Hundreds of TVs were arranged storewide, with other electronics stacked and likely to be swept up by shoppers in no time.
Outside the Target across from the Best Buy, Victor Carrillo waited for his wife to pull up so they could load all of their Christmas gifts for their children. The deals were “pretty good,” he said, and they chose that Target to avoid the crazier crowds expected elsewhere.
Carrillo said the Black Friday shopping has gotten easier than in years past, likely in part because stores open earlier and seek to spread the peak shopping period over several days rather than one chaos-inducing morning.
“It seems like it just gets easier and easier. We just come in and pretty much get whatever we want. It’s not like it used to be,” Carrillo said as he got in his car heading to Walmart for more Black Friday shopping.
Brenda Storts and her daughter, Lindsey Jury, strolled through the quiet shopping center Friday morning in matching holiday hats and flannel shirts with bags in hand. For the past 20 years, Jury, Storts and three other family members started their Christmas shopping at 4 a.m.
They made their way through three stores by 7 a.m. The plan was to hit a few more stores in search of gifts for children and grandkids before reuniting for lunch. “We’re mostly here to be together,” Jury said.