‘Black Friday’ shoppers lay siege to the malls

Alex Johnson Reporter • Profile

Bargain-driven shoppers stormed America’s malls and shopping centers Friday, glomming onto earlier-than-ever holiday price cuts dangled by retailers hoping to reverse the effects of an economic downturn.

“Consumers feel their wallets are tighter than a year ago, but that said, it’s the holiday season,” said Ellen Davis, senior director of the National Retail Federation. “This is one of the most tried and true retail periods that exist.”

The trade association had projected the slowest sales in five years for the weekend that begins with what has come to be known as Black Friday. But nervous stores began cutting prices earlier than ever to lure in the shoppers.

“I think with the energy crunch, a lot of people are looking for these prices and are really counting on the lower prices for Black Friday,” said Daniel Morales, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.

Gasoline prices above $3 a gallon could not keep early-bird shoppers away.

“We car-pooled,” Nancy Tillman of Theodore, Ala., said as she huddled in a family group over purchases at Colonial Bel Air Mall in Mobile.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it begins the period when many retailers, who depend on the holiday season for much of their profits, break “into the black” for the year.

Davis said retailers had an incentive to get people into their stores as early as possible, because “the first retailer a person usually visits wins.” 

“If you come early, you get it,” Connie Ingram said as she raced from shop to shop in Anchorage, Alaska. “If I come late, I won’t get it, and I won’t get that discount.”

‘It’s been chaotic’
For many shoppers, that was as early as Thanksgiving Eve.

Video   Retail impact Nov. 23: CNBC’s Margaret Brennan reports on the economic impact of Black Friday on U.S. retailers. CNBC

Caleb Anderson of Sioux Falls, S.D., began camping out at his local Best Buy at 2 p.m. Wednesday so he could be first in line to snag a $1,000 laptop computer for $800. He and about a dozen other early birds made themselves at home outside the store, cooking up their own breakfast and enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner shuttled to them by family members.

“We had people drive by and say, ‘You’re crazy,’” Anderson said. “But people brought us coffee and everything. It was really nice of them.

“Unfortunately, we had some people who were giving us some nasty stares,” he added.

Laptops and other consumer electronics are expected to be the hottest targets for bargain hunters this year. Retail analysts said many companies, such as Apple Inc., with its updated iPhone and iTouch, were taking lessons from the fashion industry by pushing new models at the height of the shopping season.

“The Wii, the Nintendo, the Playstation, the iPod are all very popular gifts” this year, said Richard G. Kabobjian, a managing partner with business services consultants Deloitte & Touche.

In Greenville, S.C., so many customers lined up Friday morning just after midnight that Best Buy managers began handing out vouchers at 3 a.m. Some grumblers complained that speculators were selling their vouchers for as much as $100, but managers said the process went off without any problems.

Similar scenes took place across the country in the wee, small hours of the morning.

Mall managers reported crowds of 15,000 people waiting in temperatures below 20 degrees for the doors to open at 1 a.m. at Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie, Minn. The crowd jamming the streets in front of Macy’s flagship store in New York forced managers to open even earlier than planned. And Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Wash., reported that more than 20,000 shoppers flooded through the doors between midnight and 1 a.m.

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