Local Retailers Ready for Black Friday

Thursday, November 25, 2010

 

It’s a holiday tradition: after loading up on turkey and pumpkin pie, many Triangle locals join millions of Americans in bundling up and heading out on a weekend-long shopping adventure.

 

 

Black Friday, the official opening of the holiday shopping season, is the time when retailers expect to get financially “in the black” for the year. Last year’s slew of recession-buster deals drew more shoppers who spent less money, keeping sales at a flat $41 billion for the weekend compared to the year previous. This year, retailers are a little more confident about consumer spending, and maybe a little stingier with the deals, according to a recent poll.

According to a poll of chief marketing officers at 100 leading U.S. retailers done by BDO USA, Black Friday sales are expected to increase by 3.8 percent this year. Cyber Monday (the day when online retailers typically rollout holiday deals) sales are expected to increase by 2.5 percent.

“Higher sales expectations for Black Friday and Cyber Monday indicate that 5 a.m. door-buster holiday sales are still crucial revenue drivers for the retail industry,” Ted Vaughan, partner at Retail and Consumer Product Practice, BDO USA, told retail website Chain Store Age earlier this month.

“This year, however, retailers may have turned the corner on the bargain-basement prices seen in 2009. Our survey results show that retailers will likely look to create more of a balance in promotional offers this year, slightly scaling back on excessive discounts and targeting more promotions in-stores.”

That prediction might not hold true in the Triangle. Williamsburg Premium Outlets (formerly Prime Outlets) Assistant General Manager Kathie Strauss says at Premium Outlets, “the deals just get better every year. We’ll have really significant sales – that’s the exciting part [of Black Friday].”

Though she couldn’t hazard a guess as to how many folks would show up to the weekend-long sale event, Strauss did say that, “based on our high level of traffic recently, we’re cautiously optimistic” that the outlets will see lots of shoppers. “Customers are looking for good value, and they can definitely find it here.”

One bit of advice Strauss offers for shoppers who are trying to plan out their visit this weekend: know what you’re looking for and have a prioritized list ready. She says a good idea is to look at Williamsburg Premium Outlets weekend sale webpage (find it here) with its store-by-store list of sales offerings to figure out at which store you’ll start shopping.

The 135 outlets at the Williamsburg location will have their usual Midnight Madness event (though some stores will open at 10 p.m. Thursday), and there will be shuttle service to and from off-site parking starting at 10 p.m. Parking and shuttles will run from Warhill High School parking lot and the James City County Sports Complex. Here is the link to the shuttle schedule.

Some people don’t necessarily want dollar-slashing deals, but they do want to find the perfect, one-of-a-kind gift for people on the holiday list. These are the folks Merchants Square are looking to entice, according to Sherry Volk of Pritchard Volk Consulting. “Merchant’s Square is a great place to go for unique items on your list, like art, jewelry, crafts and boutique items,” she says.

Colonial Williamsburg’s shopping district is expecting lots of visitors this year, Volk says, and there is a lot of entertainment planned over the Black Friday weekend including the Dickens street theater production of “A Christmas Carol,” jazz at the Trellis, cookies and photos with Santa at Barnes and Noble on Duke of Gloucester, and much more. (Check out all the weekend happenings on Merchants Square’s new website).

For those looking to avoid the crowds or supplement Black Friday weekend shopping with online purchases, lots of good deals can be found online this year.

The New York Times reports that big chains are getting a jump-start on offering holiday deals online – Kohl’s, for example, will be offering all its Black Friday specials online starting Thursday.

Walmart.com will offer triple the number of deals online compared to 2009, and at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Macy’s and J.C. Penney will also be offering online deals starting Thursday, the NYT reports, and online-only Amazon.com will also be slashing prices.

According to CNNMoney.com, Cyber Monday sales last year were up 14 percent over the year previous, and that shoppers bought 10 percent more items per order online than they did in stores. They reported that an average of 4.3 million consumers per minute visited shopping websites on Cyber Monday last year.