A new look for Black Friday
While the lining up process and shopping experience may have been drastically different from previous years, Santa Clarita Valley residents continued on with their personal tradition of flocking to local retailers this Black Friday.
Starting off early in the morning, dozens of people either stood in line or by their cars outside of electronics stores, such as Best Buy in Saugus, in order to seize on the advertised deals.
Jose Hernandez said he and a friend had come to the electronics retailer Friday morning to pick up a new television.
“We’re picking something up because we might as well,” said Hernandez, who added that they had gone out for Black Friday in years previously, and would be heading home after they had purchased the television.
Customers could be seen Friday morning either waiting their turn to walk into the store, or standing behind their cars for curbside pickup. Best Buy employees would then walk down the parking lot rows shouting out names of the people whose items were ready.
Courtney Abernathy, an Agua Dulce resident, said she had not camped out for a Black Friday deal in years, but that the availability of curbside pickup and a $300 markdown for a Microsoft Surface Tablet was too good for her and her husband to pass up.
“I just look for deals and if I can get them shipped that’s great, and if I can’t then I’ll come and pick them up,” said Abernathy. “I wasn’t expecting to wait out here, but all the pickup spots were taken,” she said while gesturing toward the packed parking lot.
Westfield Valencia Town Center, a fixture for many local residents during the holiday season, remained open for shoppers on Friday, and mall officials had said earlier this month they would remain committed to the health and safety of their customers and employees.
In addition to having their stores opened for perusing shoppers, the Valencia Town Center gave them the opportunity to participate in the mall’s virtual scavenger hunt and visit with Santa.
“Westfield Valencia Town Center looks forward to bringing back a reimagined festive experience that allows you and your families to safely shop, dine and play this holiday season,” said Maral Matossian, the general manager of the Westfield Valencia Town Center, in a statement issued last week. “We are also excited to announce new retailers to the shopping center, including Anthropologie, that will be open Black Friday Weekend.”
Emarketer, a national market research company, released a report in October that projected a 4.7% decrease in sales for brick-and-mortar businesses, but a 35.8% jump in U.S. retail ecommerce sales for Black Friday 2020.
However, while Walmart and BestBuy were projected to have a profitable Black Friday nationwide, they were not the only businesses to have high sales this holiday weekend in comparison to the rest of the year.
“We always have lofty expectations,” Bob Corson, general manager of Frontier Toyota, said on Friday, “but we’ve exceeded our expectations. We were concerned because of the current climate with COVID-19 and uncertainty, that people would be wary of coming out. But that has not been the case.”
Corson said he had not spoken to many of the other local dealerships as of Friday afternoon, but as for Frontier Toyota, they were on schedule to outpace last year’s Black Friday.
“I think there’s been a lot of pent-up demand, and people wanted to get out, definitely,” said Corson.