Shoppers turned out in droves to capitalize on retailers' door buster deals on Thanksgiving evening and into Black Friday, but will it be enough?
After a sluggish start to the holiday shopping season, millions of Americans finished their turkey dinners and headed out to malls and shopping centers around the U.S., with lines forming outside Best Buy,Target and Toys R Us before the doors opened.
Still, with many of retailers' promotions kicking off before Thanksgiving or online, the frenzy of years' past was noticeably more tame.
Deloitte's Kate Ferrara, who arrived at South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts, at 6 a.m., said people were shopping, but overall, it was pretty calm. In general, she said the department stores — which opened ahead of the smaller tenants — tended to be the busiest. The sales staff at some of the specialty stores, by comparison, looked a little tired, she said.
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Eager Retailers Greet Crowds Of Shoppers On 'Black Friday'
Ferrara added that many of the shoppers were teenagers who were milling around the mall and didn't appear to be making purchases.
"I don't think this is the target shopper that everybody's looking for today," she said.
Steve Barr, with PricewaterhouseCoopers, said early indications are that in-store sales will be flat, with the big winners being online stores and shoppers. He questioned how stores that are offering 50 to 70 percent off this early in the season will be able to survive long term.
"My concern would be for the long-term benefit of the retailers this just hasn't been the holiday shopping weekend that they were hoping for," he said.
Where the crowds were
Toys R Us CEO Dave Brandon said the company "got off to a good start last night," and its Times Square flagship had "lines of people down the street when we opened the doors at 5 o'clock."
Target on Friday morning said traffic in its stores was "solid" on Thanksgiving, with millions of shoppers filtering into its stores throughout the evening. Online, it achieved its biggest day ever for digital sales.
Wal-Mart said "tens of millions of customers" visited its digital and physical stores, adding that more than 25 million shoppers accessed its store maps and digital ads in preparation for the event.
Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., said customers "really appreciated" the fact that it simplified its deals this year, launching all of its doorbusters at 6 p.m. instead of staggering them across the evening.
After the initial flood of traffic, Bratspies said, stores had a "steady" flow of traffic overnight, and is expecting another big day.
"In general, the biggest things obviously go relatively quickly," Bratspies said, listing a 32-inch Roku TV, gaming systems, toys and sheets as some of its best-sellers.
And Macy's estimates at least 15,000 people were waiting outside its flagship Herald Square store ahead of its 6 p.m. Thanksgiving opening, roughly in line with last year.
"Last night was clearly the kickoff to Thanksgiving shopping and we saw it, not just with the lines, but with purchasing," CEO Terry Lundgren said. "We were very encouraged that people finally not only came out, but came out and bought."
Moody's analyst Charlie O'Shea said he saw big crowds at the New Jersey Best Buy and Target stores he visited. As of 10 a.m. Thursday, there were already 20 chairs outside of Best Buy, O'Shea said; once the deals kicked off, people were snatching up multiple TVs.
O'Shea even saw one shopper, who had already picked up three flat screen TVs, loading a fourth onto a flatbed.
But while the shopping extravaganza appeared to get off to what O'Shea called a "reasonable" start, it remains to be seen if an uptick in sales over the four-day Black Friday shopping period will be enough to boost retailers out of their lull.
"It's a long season," he said. "There's a lot of innings left to play in this game."
A slow start to holiday
Despite the fact that many stores pushed their promotions earlier into the season, shoppers didn't take the bait. According to data from NPD Group and Civic Science, 57 percent of consumers hadn't even started their holiday shopping as of Sunday.
Even as stores ramped up their early Black Friday deals, only 6 percent more consumers started shopping compared with the prior week, according to NPD's Marshal Cohen.
"It's been very promotional early in the cycle here," Brandon said.
Patrick Abboud
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