Black Friday shoppers still waking up early
Shopping is laid back in Vacaville
Before going to bed Thanksgiving night, Camila Michel set her alarm at 4:57 a.m.
This was going to be the 11-year-old’s first Black Friday and she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss a beat. “I really just wanted to shop,” Camila said. “I heard it was going to be crazy.”
Camila, accompanied by her parents and 8-year-old sister Natalia, was among the hordes of Black Friday shoppers who woke up early this morning to get an early jump on their holiday shopping. The family arrived at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in San Jose at 6 a.m. when only a few of the big retailers were open and had already checked out almost 10 stores by 8:30.
For the Michel family, Black
Friday was more about the family time than the deals.
“The only reason we came was because they really wanted to experience it,” said Camila’s mom, Esmeralda Michel. “Now that I’m older, I do most of my shopping online. But I have good memories going as a kid.”
Black Friday has changed over the years. More shoppers are doing their holiday shopping from the comfort of their homes, where deals can be had with just a few keyboard strokes, but some shop
pers still prefer to go in person.
Early Friday morning, lines of shoppers queued outside of a wide variety of retailers at West Valley Fair and Santana Row — from specialty stores such as the LEGO shop to highend stores like Lululemon to technology stores like Best Buy.
Some shoppers headed to the stores in person in search of unique deals that can’t be found online.
Sunny Raj and his girlfriend, Valerie Perez, were the first in line outside of Best Buy on Friday morning, having arrived at 5 a.m. — three hours before the store would open.
“We missed the doorbuster yesterday and a TV we really wanted was gone,” Raj said. “And since we thought that we really need this one, we decided to come out here early.”
The pair had been waiting for Black Friday to buy a new TV and the special discount on the 65-inch Hisense they wanted was only available in person. “We already bought what we could online,” he said.
Nancy Pagan, 65, usually shops online and hasn’t done Black Friday in a store in years, but she made an
Hollister employee Nicole Dommaschk tries to get the attention of Black Friday shoppers at Newpark Mall in Newark.
exception this year and hit the Newpark Mall because the Macy’s website didn’t have the boots she wants in black and she knew she could find them in the store. She did.
“I’m really surprised how easy this was. It was even easy to park right in front of the mall.”
Black Friday has become less relevant a shopping day as more people have moved to online shopping and retailers have extended the major discounts for weeks leading up to it.
But according to a survey conducted at the end of October by the National Retail Federation, of those planning to shop on Black Friday, there was an almost even split of people who planned to start their shopping in-store — 47 percent
— versus the 41 percent who planned to start online.
With record-low unemployment and rising incomes in the Bay Area, analysts are predicting a big holiday season for shoppers.
Last month, state labor officials reported that the jobless rates in the ninecounty Bay Area region, as well as California, hit record-low levels. And not only was the unemployment rate the lowest level on record in the East Bay and South Bay, but the state also added jobs for 115 consecutive months — a streak that tops California’s lengthy economic expansion during the 1960s.
The National Retail Federation predicts November and December holiday retail sales this year will rise about 4 percent over last year, for total spending across the country of about $730 billion.
Jason Woosley, vice president of commerce product and platform at Adobe Analytics, a division of San Josebased Adobe that predicts and tracks spending habits of consumers, said this year Thanksgiving Day spending soared past $4 billion for the first time ever.
Thanksgiving, he said in a written statement, “has fast become a favored day by consumers for accelerating their holiday spending and shopping efforts.”
He noted the momentum would grow with Black Friday, which Adobe predicted to reach $7.5 billion in online spending.
In Solano County, neither frigid weather nor the previous day’s food coma could deter shoppers from taking part in that enduring post-Thanksgiving tradition known as Black Friday.
Vacaville’s numerous malls were buzzing with crowds seeking to score some discounted products, early Christmas presents or both. Once again, the crowds in Vacaville were a lot more mellow than the ones in other parts of the country trampling over others to get a big-screen TV.
Over in the Nut Tree Plaza, lines could be seen forming outside Best Buy and Cost Plus World Market before the sun was even up. Sandi and Jose Alicea of Fairfield were standing just outside the Cost Plus doors. Those standing in line were served the store’s gingerbread ground coffee for a little bit of warmth.
It was the second day the Aliceas had been out shopping, beginning at 1 p.m. the previous day before their Thanksgiving dinner started. They had visited the Vacaville Premium Outlets, Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Best Buy, where they were the fifth and sixth customers in line.
“We were waiting in line at Best Buy yesterday for about three or four hours,” Sandi said.
Jose said waiting in line is part of the fun.
“Waiting in line is exciting,” he said. “It’s like, ‘All right, I made it before everybody else.’ We’re very competitive.”
Sandi and Jose have made it a tradition to shop on Black Friday throughout all nine years they have been married. Sandi likes the deals and being able to spend time with her husband, and Jose sees it as the true start of the holiday season.
“It seems to be less chaotic every year,” he said.