Black Friday: Retailers Win Over Shoppers With Thursday Sales Events
As the parking lot hummed with drivers searching for spots and the line to get in the store grew by the minute, A.J
. Cabrera sheepishly steered a cart full of toys for his children out past the crowds and toward his parked car.It was close to 9 p.m. Thursday, and the 30-year-old from Southeast Portland was done.
While this weekend is one of the biggest of the year for retailers, its anchor Black Friday slipped in stature as the signature crowds, doorbuster buzz and deep discounts shifted, probably permanently, to Thanksgiving night.
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"I had expected so much worse," said Cabrera, who'd arrived at a Southeast Portland Walmart at 6:30 p.m. "I had more motivation to go because the sale started at 8 p.m. Would I have gone if it opened at midnight? Maybe not."
Black Friday's biggest players, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., and Toys R Us, tested Thursday evening sales this year; critics rolled their eyes and muttered about the so-called Christmas creep. But for many shoppers, it was an opportunity for a family outing, a way to walk off Thanksgiving dinner and a shot at some of the season's best deals.
It also kicks off the key holiday shopping season, which by one measure could rack up $586.1 billion in sales the last two months of the year.
Black Friday fun
Mix up deal-hungry shoppers and late-night hours and you'll usually end up with a little Black Friday wackiness.
This year was no different.
Black Friday tourism?
Muhammed Memon and his wife, children and brother-in-law traveled to Portland from Seattle for a little Thanksgiving getaway. They did some sightseeing, visiting Multnomah Falls in the morning, and had their Thanksgiving meal. Then they learned there was a Walmart near their hotel.
"We just wanted to see what was going on," said Memon, 36, noting that not much else was going on at that hour. The family inched along the line that zigzagged around the building and around three shipping containers holding the store's layaway items.
"This is just for fun," said Memon, adding he wasn't even sure if they'd buy anything inside.
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Across town, Will Rau and Jenny Lin, both 20, left their homes in Vancouver, B.C., at midnight and drove through the early morning hours. Canadian Thanksgiving was last month, but Rau, Lin and three friends had the day off from school and work and decided to line up outside the Apple store and wait an iPad.
Why drive all night? Why come so far?
Two reasons, Rau explained: "bored" and "no sales tax."
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And in the final installment of out-of-town shoppers comes Turkish sea captain Murat Gurel.
Gurel first heard about Black Friday when his commercial ship docked at a Portland grain terminal this week. At the Jantzen Beach Target at 5 a.m., the captain loaded his basket with gadgets, clothes and other goods. He expected he would spend at least $3,000 on Friday.
"I'm just trying to find some things cheaper," he said, displaying an armful of $99 Nikon digital cameras. "These would be three times as much in Turkey."
Entrepreneurial spirit
Although Josiah Halajian only traveled in from Newberg, the 20-year-old was among this year's Black Friday entrepreneurs.
Halajian, who says he's been shopping with his mom on the day after Thanksgiving for years, bought two 50-inch Westinghouse televisions at a Target in Tigard. He then walked out into the store's parking lot and sold them, making a profit of $50 to $100 on each one.
"Some people just don't want to wait in those lines," said Halajian, who held a bag with this year's popular gaming system, Wii U.
He'll take that home and sell it on eBay, where he said he can make a 100 percent profit.
--Laura Gunderson; Mike Rogoway and Elliot Njus of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.
This year, retailers aimed to have something for everyone. They managed to draw in new customers Thursday, held steady with holiday-strength -- if not Black Friday-esque -- traffic the day after Thanksgiving and saw a steady flow of shoppers even as some doorbuster prices ended around noon.
Last year, the National Retail Federation estimated 226 million shoppers visited retail stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, spending $52 billion. The trade group will release this year's forecast on Sunday based, on surveys of the weekend's shoppers. Retailers do not disclose Black Friday sales figures.
Whether Portland-area shoppers powered through the night buying gifts and staples for themselves or joined the mix early Friday, the general feeling was that the once-big sales morning was, at best, a more mellow shopping experience. At worst, they said, the usual excitement, inventory and range of discounts were depleted.
Black Friday veteran Nancy Schreiber of Vancouver wasn't impressed with Target's 5 a.m. offerings.
Black Friday 2012: Laura Gunderson recaps the beginning of the holiday season
This weekend is one of the biggest of the year for retailers. But its anchor, Black Friday, slipped in stature as the crowds, doorbuster buzz and deep discounts shifted, probably permanently, to Thanksgiving night.
"They're out of a lot of things," she said of the inventory at Portland's new Jantzen Beach store, which had been open since 9 p.m. Thursday. Her basket, laden with some toys and a toaster, likely wouldn't come close to the $300 to $400 she spent at Target last year.
"You kind of look forward to the crowds. There's that excitement that's just not here."
Alison Brown, 31, of Tualatin, hunched in the dark outside the Washington Square J.C. Penney's awaiting its 6 a.m. opening. She'd napped for a couple hours between hitting Old Navy on Thursday evening and Fred Meyer's famous sock sale at 5 a.m.
"I just wish they'd all open at the same time, whether it's on Thanksgiving night or early on Friday," said Brown, who was after a $25 pair of boots and an $8 slow cooker. "This is exhausting."
Yet the new, staggered Black Friday schedules thrilled others who said they alleviated the usual panicked rush and rudeness.
"It's better," said 23-year-old Darius Paul of Damascus, who was shopping for movies at Walmart. "It's less chaotic. In the past the doors open and people push you and cuss you out."
Lloyd Center Sears general manager Ken Phillips said a line formed outside the Northeast Portland store by 5:30 p.m. Thursday and that 100 people were waiting when the store opened at 8. But Friday's 4 a.m. doorbuster was a little slower by comparison, he said, though the store still sold out of two of its marquee big-screen TV deals.
"It was good, but a little less boisterous," he said, adding that sales overall seemed stronger than last year. "We've had a really steady flow all day."
Wal-Mart Stores, which went into the weekend braced for possible employee walkouts and protests, reported little disturbance in the Portland area. The Arkansas-based retailer claimed banner sales from 8 p.m. to midnight Thursday.
"There aren't as many people as last year," said 19-year-old Ashley Beykovsky, who was collapsed in a massage chair near the front of the Walmart at Eastport Plaza.
Beykovsky and her friend, 19-year-old Rilee Jones, said they are veteran Black Friday shoppers. Before Walmart they visited Target, where they waited in line for more than an hour to pay.
"They've got some really good deals on movies here," Beykovsky said, "and I expected them to be all gone by now."
Many teens and 20-somethings were out Thursday night, welcomed by new events at some Portland-area malls. Clackamas Town Center opened at 11 p.m., an hour before stores, offering shoppers free music, access to the food court and a chance to line up early in front of their favorite stores. Lines converged at an area with many stores catering to young people, knotting up between lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret and the Swedish apparel chain H&M.
Lloyd Center also was busy at midnight, offering prizes, music and a chance to "turkey bowl."
"People really seemed to have a good time," said Wanda Rosenbarger, the mall's manager, who noted that crowds were steady until around 3 a.m.
"Of course," she said Friday afternoon, "it's quite busy right now."
Indeed traffic picked up at many malls and discounters around noon Friday.
The Apple store at Bridgeport Village opened at 8 a.m., making it Andy and Renee Angstrom's third stop of the day. The Silverton couple got up at 3:45 so they could make it to Home Depot for doughnuts and coffee ahead of its 5 a.m. opening. They bought a saw for Andy's business, then headed to Target for a pair of iPads.
But this, Andy Angstrom said wearily of the Apple store, was the last stop.
"No," his wife interjected. "DSW."
"Oh, we've got to go look at shoes," he said with a grin. "Then we're going home. We haven't got much sleep."
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