Strong sales on Black Friday last week were a bright spot in an otherwise glum year for retailers, suggesting December could be better for the economy than many experts thought.
With the sinking economy comes a new breed of strategic shoppers. Instead of emptying their wallets, shoppers are emptying their craft drawers shopping smart. Homemade gifts and bargain hunting have become more popular saving strategies this year. When money is tight, they still hit the mall, but just for the deals.
‘I’m going to get my kids less,’ Marblehead resident Gail Goldberg said. ‘I’ve already called the sisters and brothers-in-law to say that we’ll get the kids stuff but not the grown-ups.’
This year, Goldberg said she might make beaded earrings for family members as a cheaper and more personal gift alternative.
In previous years, Goldberg has spent money on big-ticket items for her son and daughter for Hanukkah. This year, it is less likely they will get the type of gifts ‘-‘- like an air-hockey table or a computer ‘-‘- that they’ve received in previous years .
Even with her ‘shopaholic’ tendencies, Goldberg opted to see The secret Life of Bees in the theaters instead of going to the mall on the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday.
The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is when stores typically boast their biggest deals. The day is also when most retailers turn a profit, hence the ‘black’ name. On Nov. 28, many department stores opened as early at 4 a.m., anticipating a large influx of customers.
Shoppers and store owners who were interviewed said they thought that this year fell short in net sales compared to previous Black Fridays. Though it appeared that fewer people ventured to the mall, retailers saw a 3 percent rise in sales over last Black Friday, according to a ShopperTrak report. Wireless phone companies like Simplexity announced a record amount of sales, with a wireless device selling every 12 seconds on Black Friday.
Possible explanations to the rise in sales on Nov. 29 ‘-‘- despite poor economic conditions ‘-‘- could be from going-out-of-business sales, larger discounts in 2008 compared with previous years and shoppers choosing to spend only on a day with big sales instead of over a prolonged period.
The term Black Friday comes from the idea that companies will move from deficit spending to profit, and in a checkbook, go from the red to the black. Many consider the day when shoppers fight each other for the best deals to be the official start to the holiday season.
Jamie Miletsky, an assistant manager at the Landmark Center Staples, said that sales have been much lower since the mortgage crisis.
Staples’ Black Friday sales were down by one third of the amount compared to last year, according to Miletsky. Though the store opened three hours earlier than its normal time at 9 a.m., there were not many eager shoppers to greet.
Last year, there had been a line out front when the doors opened, but this year only a few customers walked in early.
Miletsky said when he worked at Radioshack on a previous Black Friday, the attitude was much different than this year.
‘There aren’t as many crazy shoppers,’ he said. ‘Last year, a person came in and bought a ton of $9.99 prepaid phones to sell online. We had sales like that this year, but no craziness.’
The people who did come to shop tended to gravitate toward the deals: $99 global positioning systems, monitors and laptops. Even still, the number of big-ticket items, which frequently sell out on Black Friday, were left on the shelves.
A Michael’s crafts store employee said the store was hit early with shoppers, but throughout the course of the day, fewer customers trickled in to find deals. By the time the sun was setting, she could only see 10 to 15 people wandering the aisles.
‘They came early and got out quick,’ she said.
Kate Franklin, a Muhlenburg College sophomore, did not expect to find a pull-through parking space at the mall last Friday.
‘This just doesn’t happen,’ she said.
Upon entering A.C. Moore to purchase supplies to make gifts to save some extra cash, she was even more surprised to find short lines and no person fighting her for that last piece of supply wood for her project. A stark contrast to the angry mobs of shoppers who killed a Walmart employee in a stampede in Long Island that morning.
Franklin attributed the lack of holiday shoppers to the lack of flexible spending.
‘It’s all about flexible spending and when people aren’t making as much and their stocks are doing badly, flexible spending goes by the wayside,’ she said. ‘People are looking for things that they just need.’
She figured that the competitive shoppers had set their alarms early and were already home from the mall by the time she arrived during the mid-afternoon.
But, many others could relate to the intense pressure to wake up early and stand in line for hours just to find the right deal.
Barnes & Noble收银员莎拉Edquist, 22岁,她说considered herself a desperate shopper when she waited in line at Circuit City in the frigid early morning at 4:45 a.m. And she was not the only one. The line to enter the store wrapped around the building. Employees, patrolling as if they were security guards, manned the front doors before the 5 a.m. opening to ‘keep things in order.’
Most people huddled together, impatiently waiting for their price vouchers, each reserving a chosen hot-ticket item like games or electronics.
‘For some people it’s a sport, and for others it’s desperation,’ Edquist said about the mood while waiting in line. ‘Because the economy is bad, people will go out on the sale days for the bargain shopping.’
Despite having to work a shift at Barnes & Noble later that evening, Edquist was determined to wake up early for her big-ticket items: a big screen TV and Guitar Hero World Tour.
Though Edquist said the BU Barnes & Noble was busy two days before Thanksgiving, the store seemed empty on Black Friday when she worked.
‘If I worked at any other store I’d expect it to be busy,’ she said. ‘Because there are no students here during break, we don’t get much sales.’
Unlike Edquist’s ‘strike while the prices are down’ strategy, Goldberg, 50, said she was going to hold off on buying her big-ticket item this year: a new car.
‘Even though people say now’s a good time to buy a car, we’ll have to think about it,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen the economy so bad in my lifetime.’
Other shoppers, like Mary Franklin ‘-‘- Kate’s mother ‘-‘- decided to avoid going out on Black Friday entirely and to keep her mall time this season to a minimum.
‘I’m not a shopper ‘-‘- I’m actually pretty frugal.’ she said. ‘This year, I’m even more frugal. Everyone is getting one item, and I’ve thought very hard about what each will be.’
In previous years, Franklin said she would pick items off the shelves and spend whatever she had in her wallet. This year, her feelings of limitless spending have also disappeared.
Like many others looking to conserve this year, Franklin is making gifts for her family and close friends. She is planning on doing more cooking, sewing and crafting ‘-‘- taking advantage of her hobbies during the holidays.
”每个人都会得到我孩子从工艺品l make,’ she said. ‘I’m particularly good with working with clothes, so that’s what some people will get.’
