US retailers were hoping for more shoppers like Shawn Elzia as the annual Black Friday bargain stampede marked the unofficial start of what is widely expected to be a middling holiday shopping season.
The Brooklyn, New York, teacher, one of hundreds of thousands of shoppers jostling for deals around the country, said he ended up spending about 25 percent more than he planned, even while worrying about the state of the economy.
“I did not expect such deals,” the 33-year old said as he left a Macy’s store in Jersey City, New Jersey, clutching bags full of clothing for himself and his family.
Photo: AFP
“It’s slashed down to the bones,” he said. “There were some great discounts if you showed up early.”
Deals are always part of the picture on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year was notable for an earlier opening for some retailers, and possibly for the shopper who used pepper spray to make sure she could get a popular video game system.
The early start by stores brought out younger shoppers, such as Alina Ybarra, who spent the wee hours of the morning with her friends as they all looked for items for themselves.
“It seems like a lot of teenagers were the primary shoppers, maybe because of the hour, but I think net-net it’s not really going to result in an incremental positive for retailers,” Ed Yruma, senior equity analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said after checking out crowds at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. He said shoppers were not carrying a lot of shopping bags.
More than 120 stores at the Mall of America opened at midnight. The crowd at that point was about 15,000 people. Mall operators estimated that it was the largest crowd ever at the mall, which is big enough to hold seven Yankee Stadiums.
While eager shoppers emerged from stores around the country lugging big-screen TVs and bags full of video games and toys, it was far from certain that people will pull out their wallets for much more than the best deals this year. Shoppers with limited budgets started using layaway at chains such as Walmart as early as last month.
Retail shares fell more than the overall market on Friday.
“Americans are still worried about jobs, still worried about the economy,” said Mike Thielmann, group executive vice president at J.C. Penney, who added that shoppers were buying gifts and for themselves, and said jewelry was selling well.
The 24 hours that started at 9pm on Thursday will be the biggest in retail history, with sales estimated at US$27 billion, according to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, one of the few experts predicting a strong season.
While Black Friday is the busiest day of the year in terms of store traffic, it does not always mean that sales will soar for the season.
Despite brisk sales right after Thanksgiving in 2008 and 2009, total holiday season sales fell as the recession gripped the country.
The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, expects 152 million people to hit stores this weekend, up 10.1 percent from last year. Yet it expects sales for the full November-December holiday season to rise just 2.8 percent, well below last year’s pace when sales rose 5.2 percent.
Luxury chains, such as Saks Inc, and those catering to lower-income shoppers, such as dollar stores, are expected to do well this shopping season.
“For our products that are US$25,000 and up, growth is phenomenal,” said Mark Vadon, founder of online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. “Price points under US$100 are also doing really well. For the mass part of the market, consumers are strapped and being a lot more wary.”
Overall, retail executives and analysts expect a more competitive shopping season than last year. Unemployment remains at 9 percent, European debt woes are weighing on the stock market and consumer confidence remains spotty.
Online sales on Thursday and Friday surpassed last year’s and more shoppers used their mobile devices to buy, according to IBM data. The amount US shoppers spent via eBay Mobile more than doubled on Thanksgiving, while eBay’s PayPal Mobile unit saw a five-fold increase in global mobile payment volume versus last Thanksgiving.
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