November 22, 2007

Shoppingest day of the year
Mall official talks about Black Friday
By Brian Early bearly@hippopress.com

The Christmas season, of course, starts the day after Thanksgiving, with one of the busiest shopping days of the year. People will flood retail stores with the lure of special deals and early bird specials. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, as for many retailers, it’s the day they finally start making a profit. Deb Stone is the director of marketing for the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester. This will be her 17th holiday season at the mall. She talks about how friendly the customers are, and that there is hope for a decent, though not fantastic, shopping year for retailers.

Deb Stone is the director of marketing at the Mall of New Hampshire. This is her 17th holiday season at the mall.

Q:What happens on Black Friday?
It’s exciting. You’d be surprised what kind of tradition it is for mothers, daughters, granddaughters.... They have their list of what they’re shopping for, what stores open at what time, and they have their game plan together. It’s very fun.

[When] do people start camping out?
Very few people camp out. [J.C.] Penney’s opens at 4 a.m. this year, and they’re advertising that ... but most people come right around 5 a.m. because they know that’s when a majority of the stores will open.

Are there certain items that have traditionally better deals on that day?
Many, many stores do what they call “early bird specials,” and so from 5 to 10 in the morning or 5 to 11 ... they’ll have a couple of products that are specially priced, or perhaps the first 100 customers get a $10 gift card ... to try to drive the business earlier in the day because it gets crunched in the afternoon.

In the past there have been hot items, like Cabbage Patch Kids ... Are there any must-have items this year?
There are no particularly hot toys this year, although they’re coming back with a new Cabbage Patch Kid. I’m hearing that Barbie is still extremely popular, and whatever is the latest Barbie doll, everybody has to get it. The Disney DVD movies, there’s always a release around the holidays, and those are popular. Shrek the Third is out, and that’s still new.

Do you have to have extra security to watch out for customers battling over certain items?
Not for customers battling. Because of the volume of customers in the mall, we have additional security. I have rarely seen battles over things. It’s a fun, festive time. People are excited. If they are waiting in line, one person will go get coffee for the other one, and they probably don’t know each other.

You see a lot of camaraderie between the shoppers?
Definitely, definitely. They’ll say, did you know that such and such is on sale at another store and they open at 6 a.m.?

What’s important about Black Friday?
Black Friday … for many retailers, that is the day that they are finally in the black for sales throughout the year. The holiday season is extremely important to nearly all retailers. It can make or break their entire sales year. But it’s also a myth that it is the busiest shopping day of the year. It typically ranks as fourth or fifth busiest day of the year. The Saturday before Christmas is always the busiest shopping day.

What are the other days?
The second-busiest shopping day is the Sunday before Christmas. The third-busiest day is typically the second Saturday before Christmas, and the second Sunday before Christmas. The 10 days before Christmas, that’s the crunch.

What are the expectations for this holiday season? So far retail sales have been down this year.
Yeah, it’s been a rough fall, but it’s very weather-driven. Customers, if it’s not cold, they don’t think about getting their new coat or boots or gloves.... We had a warm fall, which did not help ... for apparel in the fall, but all the different industry reports I hear are that we will have an OK Christmas season. They expect to be up three to five percent over last year. It’s not going to be gangbusters, but a lot of that is driven by the housing market. But I think we’ll be OK. I think we’ll be alright.

How is Internet shopping affecting sales at the mall?
It doesn’t seem to be hurting us. Some stores, like electronics as in Best Buy, they find that it’s helping because people are doing research online, and then they’ll come in the store and they’ll say, I want look at this, this and this, and I want see what this one does and that one does, because they’ve already done their research. So in some ways it helps them because their store people are not spending as much time explaining the product. So that the sale time is reduced.

Do you have any shopping advice for shoppers?
Shop early. The crunch time is the 10 days before Christmas. Try to get out to shop early in the morning or dinner. Afternoons, that’s when everybody wants to come and head down to the mall, and that’s when it’s the busiest, and they’ll end up waiting in lines.

—Brian Early