The hordes of early Black Friday shoppers lining up outside big box stores across the St. Louis region on Thursday night welcomed the unseasonably warm temperatures — at least until it started raining — as they waited for stores to open earlier than ever before.
While the final numbers will not be known for a couple of more days, some regular Black Friday shoppers said it seemed like the earlier openings that started at 8 p.m. at some locations drew slightly smaller crowds, perhaps because of the rainfall.
The earlier openings drew a mixed response from shoppers.
“I hate it,” said Michelle Huff, of the Beaufort area, waiting in line outside a Toys R Us in Sunset Hills that opened about 15 minutes ahead of its planned 8 p.m. opening to let shoppers escape the falling rain. “It cuts into family time.”
Huff said she prefers the midnight and 5 a.m. openings so she can go out when her children are asleep. But she came out nonetheless for the 8 p.m. opening.
“Its something I like to do,” she said. “It’s a tradition.”
She and her husband reached the store about 1:30 p.m. to be one of the first in line after an early Thanksgiving dinner.
They didn’t have any big-ticket items on their list. Most of their list included video games, Justin Bieber dolls and Etch-a-Sketches.
Farther down the line was Krissy McBride, of Pevely, who was taking part in her first Black Friday. She said she wouldn’t have come out to shop if the store opened later toward midnight.
“If it was later than this — no way,” she said. “I need my sleep.”
But her cousin, Tiffany Brady of Arnold, a Black Friday veteran, wished it had been later.
“I left my family at 5:30 to come here, and my husband was not too happy about it,” she said. “He thinks I’m crazy.”
But she was happy to have secured paper slips that assured her of two iPod touches. She was in for a late night, too, with plans to hit midnight openings as well.
“Last year I didn’t get home until 6 in the morning,” she said.
Robin Prince of Sullivan was first in line outside the Toys R Us and also had her sights set on some iPod touches. She brought her daughter Sabrina Breen, 15, with her. She said she hesitated at first about whether to come to the early opening.
“But when it comes down to it, you can’t beat the deals,” she said. “And it’s exciting for me.”
She said the line didn’t seem as long as in previous years. She wondered whether the earlier openings, the rain and the availability of many of the deals online deterred some people.
Melissa Jobin, a Target store manager, said the crowd for this year’s 9 p.m. opening was about the same for last year’s midnight opening.
But she said the line didn’t get as long until closer to opening — perhaps because people waited to come out until they finished dinner.
It’s too soon to get a read on the success of the earlier opening, Jeff Jones, the chief marketing officer for Target said while surveying the crowd at the Kirkwood store.
“We’ve had strong traffic to Target.com all day,” said Jones, who happened to be in town for Thanksgiving with his wife’s family. He added that some of the in-store specials were put online earlier in the day.
As for some of the backlash about the earlier opening, especially from a Target worker behind a change.org petition that obtained 350,000 signatures, he said that the retailer heard from customers that they preferred to shop earlier and not have to stay up all night.
As he surveyed the rush for electronics, he remarked how most customers had the Target circular and were going exactly for the items listed in them.
“People use it as their playbook,” he said. “They know exactly what they want to get.”
Black Friday, he said, is for shoppers who are planners.
“Then at the very end of the season, the people who are procrastinators will be back 4-5 days before Christmas,” he said.
The Walmart in Kirkwood store quickly sold out of LG Blu-ray players and iPads. But because those items were included in the retailer’s first-ever guarantee for people in line by 11 p.m., customers were given vouchers so they could get the items at a later date.
Retailers took Black Friday creep once again to a new level this year — opening earlier on Thanksgiving night than ever before. Walmart, Sears and Toys R Us were among those rolling out door busters at 8 p.m., while Target opened an hour later at 9 p.m. Then at midnight, dozens of stores in shopping malls as well as Best Buy, Macy’s and Kohl’s swung open their doors.
About 17 percent of consumers — or 41 million people — planned to shop early Black Friday sales on Thursday night, according to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.
But Black Friday itself — today — was still expected to be the busiest shopping day of the weekend, with one-third of all consumers — or 80 million people — planning to shop today.
In total, the National Retail Federation estimates that 147 million shoppers planned to shop this weekend from today through Sunday — a slight decrease from the 152 million who planned to do so last year.
The small dip could be because many retailers offered their in-store deals online this year. So some consumers may have decided to sit out the long lines in stores and crowded parking lots and instead to shop from the comfort of their couch.
The research firm comScore expects online retail spending in November and December will grow 17 percent over last year. That compares with the NRF’s forecast for a 4.1 percent increase in overall holiday retail sales.
While online sales have definitely picked up, Bill Martin, the founder of ShopperTrak, which tracks store traffic, said bricks-and-mortar stores are still holding their own.
“We think there is still a comfort level that consumers enjoy in talking directly to a human and to have someone accountable if something goes wrong.”
So more than 90 percent of all retail sales are still expected to be in physical stores, he noted.
The busiest shopping day of the year used to fluctuate between the Saturday before Christmas — known as Super Saturday — and Black Friday. But for the last seven years, Black Friday has taken top honors and was expected to do the same this year, he said.
“It’s been a pretty strong run,” Martin said. “I think most of it has to do with the fact that retail has really promoted it and the consumers have really embraced it.”
He expected Black Friday to be king again this year.
On Thursday morning, some people drove by the Best Buy in Crestwood and yelled to the handful of people camping outside the store that they were wasting their holiday.
But Matt Swanson just laughed. He jumped out of bed and got into line about 5:30 a.m. after a friend called him to tell him that there were some people with tents already lined up for the midnight opening.
He was on the hunt for a 40-inch TV — but to be honest, he didn’t even know how much it was selling for, just that it would be a good deal.
“It gets to me a little bit,” the stay-at-home dad said of spending all of Thanksgiving in line. “But it’s rewarding to get something. And it’s a lot of fun.”
Last year, he said, he bonded with people in line and kept in touch with some of them through a Facebook group they created.
By about 6 p.m., the line outside the store was only about 25 people deep and just beginning to wrap around the side of the building.
Katherine Lovsey, who was at the front of the line, began camping out with her children there at noon Wednesday.
“I didn’t want to be disappointed as I was last year,” she said of missing out on a 42-inch TV at Best Buy after waiting for 16 hours. “This year I’m going to get a TV even though I don’t need one. But I’m going to give it as a gift.”
