This season could mark the end of Black Friday as we know it.
For
decades, stores have opened their doors in the wee hours on the day
after Thanksgiving. But this year, major chains such as Target and Sears
ushered in customers on Thanksgiving itself, even before the turkey
leftovers had gotten cold, turning the traditional busiest shopping day
of the year into a two-day affair.
Despite an outcry from some
employees, both stores and shoppers seemed to like it. Some people went
shopping with a full belly, going straight from the dinner table to the
stores. Others slept off their big meal and went to the mall before
daybreak on Black Friday.
"I
ate my turkey dinner and came right here," said Rasheed Ali, a college
student in New York City who bought a 50-inch TV for $349 and a sewing
machine for $50 when Target opened at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. "Then I'm
going home and eating more."
This new approach could become a holiday shopping season tradition.
"It's Black Thursday and Friday
combined," said Jackie Fernandez, a retail expert at the consulting
firm Deloitte. "This is going to be a new normal of how we shop."
It
won't be clear for a few days how many shoppers took advantage of the
Thanksgiving hours. But about 17 percent of people said earlier this
month that they planned to shop at stores that opened on Thanksgiving,
according to an International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs
survey of 1,000 consumers.
Meanwhile, 33 percent intended to shop on Black Friday, down 1 percentage point from last year. Overall, it is estimated that sales on Black Friday
will be up 3.8 percent to $11.4 billion this year, according to
technology company ShopperTrak, which did not forecast sales from
Thanksgiving Day.
The Black Friday
creep began in earnest a few years ago when stores realized that sales
alone weren't enough to lure shoppers, especially with Americans
becoming more comfortable buying things online. Opening on Thanksgiving
was risky, with some employees and shoppers complaining it was almost
sacrilegious.
But many stores evidently felt they needed an edge,
especially this season, when many Americans are worried about high
unemployment and wondering whether Congress will be able to head off tax
increases and spending cuts before the U.S. reaches the "fiscal cliff"
in January.
Overall, the National Retail Federation estimates that
sales in November and December will rise 4.1 percent this year to
$586.1 billion, below last year's 5.6 percent.
"Every retailer
wants to beat everyone else," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of
America's Research Group, a firm based in Charleston, S.C. "Shoppers
love it."
At Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, most of its
4,000 U.S. namesake stores are already open 24 hours year-round. But the
chain added special sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier
than a year ago.
The company said that its start to the holiday
season was "the best ever," with nearly 10 million transactions and
5,000 items sold per second from 8 p.m. to midnight on Thanksgiving.
Toys R Us opened at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than last year.
Macy's, which opened at midnight on Thanksgiving, had 12,000 customers wrapped around its store in New York's Herald Square.
The
earlier start also meant the violence associated with shoppers fighting
for bargains likewise began earlier. On Thanksgiving night, a couple
was struck by an SUV while walking into a Wal-Mart in Washington state,
and in Texas, shoppers scattered when a man who got punched during a
fight at a Sears store pulled a gun. Two people also were shot and
wounded in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday in a disagreement that police believe was over a parking spot outside a Wal-Mart.
Julie
Hansen, a spokeswoman at Minneapolis' Mall of America, the nation's
largest shopping center, reported that 30,000 shoppers showed up for the
mall's midnight opening, up from 20,000 last year. "This was additional
dollars," Hansen said. This year, 200 of the 520 mall tenants opened at
midnight following Thanksgiving. That's double from a year ago.
To
be sure, it's not clear whether the longer hours will turn into extra
dollars for retailers, or whether sales will simply be spread out over
two days.
The Thanksgiving openings appeared to create two waves of shoppers — the late-nights and the early birds.
Sam
Chandler and his wife, Lori, were among the night owls. They started
shopping at midnight on Thanksgiving. By the time they reached the
Wal-Mart in Greenville, S.C., early Friday, they had already hit several stores, including Target and Best Buy.
"We've learned over the years, you have to stand in line early and pray," Sam said.
Stu
and April Schatz of Rockland County, N.Y., went to the Garden State
Plaza mall in Paramus, N.J., which didn't open until 7 a.m. on Black Friday, because they didn't want to deal with the crowds that show up late on Thanksgiving night.
"It's so much more civilized going in the morning," said April Schatz, a teacher. "We wanted to enjoy our evening."
Aaron Bastian, left, and Damien Hardwick, both of Monroe City, Mo., carry big ticket items purchased at the Quincy Wal-Mart on Black Friday. (H-W Photo/Michael Kipley)
