Shoppers Seek ‘Elusive Game’ at U.S. best Buy, Target (Update2)
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Shoppers took advantage of BlackFriday discounts to snap up televisions, laptop computers androbot hamsters at best Buy Co., Target Corp. and Toys “R” UsInc. stores from new Jersey to Texas.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, drewcrowds with $298 Hewlett-Packard laptop computers and otherdoorbuster specials that went on sale at 5 a.m. best Buy Inc.,the biggest electronics chain, had bigger early-morning crowdsthan last year, Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn said. Thelines in front of the stores were longer, and the company’s Website attracted more visitors, Dunn said.
“Those are both directionally important indicators forus,” Dunn said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
The day after U.S. Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday,the traditional beginning of holiday buying. Explanations of thephrase’s origins differ, one holding that it’s the weekend whenretailers go to being in the black, profitable for the year.Stores open early on Black Friday and offer early-bird discountsto attract business. This year, shoppers say they plan to spendless on gifts than they did last year.
“I do this because of my family,” Eihab Elzubier, a truckdriver, said as he stood at the head of the line outside a BestBuy in Greensboro, North Carolina, before the store opened thismorning. he arrived at 9 a.m. yesterday and kept his place inline with help of his wife, mother and sister.
Elzubier, 41, figured the 20-hour wait would save him asmuch as $1,000. he planned to buy a 42-inch Samsung flat-panelTV for $547.99, a Sony laptop computer for $399.99, a Compaqlaptop for $179.99, software and accessories.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, kept stores openall night so shoppers could grab $3 pajamas and $15 Miley Cyrusjeans when they went on sale at 5 a.m. Employees handed outvouchers for discounted consumer electronics to early arrivalsand distributed circulars and maps indicating promoted items.
The world’s largest retailer cut some toy prices to $5.Walmart, Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney Co., Target, Macy’s Inc.and Sears Holdings Corp.’s Kmart all advertised discounted slowcookers for early shoppers in Thursday circulars. Prices rangedfrom $3 to $20.
Shirley Johnson, 48, an accounting clerk from Rittman,Ohio, was hunting for the best values on items like gloves bykeeping fliers in her car and going from store to store.
Picking Carefully
“Normally my cart would be full with gifts on BlackFriday,” she said at the Walmart in Medina, Ohio. “Now I havemaybe $10 worth of carefully picked items that were on special.there are just more and more expenses and less and less money.”
Walmart fell 33 cents to $54.63 at 1:01 p.m. in new YorkStock Exchange composite trading. Target fell 13 cents to$47.70. Richfield, Minnesota-based best Buy lost 43 cents to$42.83, and J.C. Penney declined $1.07 to $29.57.
Based on visit to stores and comments by store employees,sales are probably meeting or exceeding projections, DavidSchick, a Baltimore-based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co.wrote in a note to investors today.
There seem to be more discounts on TVs this year, andshoppers are snapping them up, said Charles O’Shea, a new York-based retail analyst with Moody’s Investors Service. in the fourhours he spent checking retailers in northern new Jersey, he sawseveral shoppers standing at bus stops holding flat-panel sets.
“It looks like everybody has caught the promotional bugpretty heavily,” O’Shea said.
The 12,000-car parking lot at Taubman Centers Inc.’sWoodfield Mall in Chicago was 35 percent full by 6 a.m.,compared with 28 percent last year, bill Taubman, chiefoperating officer of Taubman Centers, a U.S. real estateinvestment trust with 24 malls, said in a telephone interview.
“There’s a little more traffic than last year across theboard, maybe 10 percent,” he said.
Toys “R” Us, based in Wayne, new Jersey, had an averageof 1,000 people outside all its stores before they opened atmidnight, five hours earlier than last year, said Chairman andCEO Jerry Storch. the chains sold a “significant number” ofApple Inc. iPods and tens of thousands of Zhu Zhu Pets robothamsters, he said.
Angela Akra, a 33-year-old office manager from Bristol,Connecticut, got to the Toys “R’ Us store at the Corbin’sCorner shopping center in West Hartford last night at 10:50 p.m.and snared a coveted ticket for a $10 Zhu Zhu Pets toy.
“We’re optimistic,” Storch said in a telephone interviewtoday. “The last thing parents will cut back on is toys fortheir kids.”
Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s
In new York’s Herald Square, shoppers streamed in and outof the Victoria’s Secret and H&M stores with multiple shoppingbags at dawn.
Shopper traffic appeared greater than a year ago, andcontinued to flow into the Herald Square store after the initialrush, Macy’s Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren said. Housewaresand jewelry were selling “briskly,” he said.
“Last year, we were in a much more defensive posture,”Lundgren said in a telephone interview. “This year, we are in amuch more offensive posture.”
Martha Alfaro, 29, a retail production manager, bought acoffee maker after arriving at the store at 5 a.m.
Members of more than a quarter of U.S. households plannedto shop today, according to the International Council ofShopping Centers, a new York-based trade group.
Deann Smyers, 53, arrived at a best Buy in Houston at 7:30a.m. on Thanksgiving to wait for the chance to buy a Samsungrefrigerator offered at almost half of its original price. Herson Dustin, 28, was looking for a GPS and laptop.
“We researched the ads, and this just had the things wewanted,” she said.
Joe Dejean, a 24-year-old financial consultant, found 60percent off on menswear at a Saks Inc. store in new York andpicked up some shirts and toiletries.
“I’m not really sure if prices are going to get anylower,” he said. “I may come back to Saks later after checkinga few more places.”
With unemployment at 10.2 percent, price is more importantto consumers this year than selection, quality or convenience,according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers may spendan average of $682.74 on Christmas gifts this year, comparedwith $705.01 last year, according to the Washington-based NRF.
Apple reduced the price of 21.5-inch iMac computers by $101to $1,098 today and discounted its 64-gigabyte iPod Touchmusical device by $41 to $358, according to the Cupertino,California-based company’s Web site.
Lorna Artibani, 52, hosted a meal at home yesterday for adozen family members until 10:30 p.m. an hour later, she and her30-year-old daughter headed to the Toys “R” Us in WestHartford, Connecticut, to look for gifts for her 9-year-oldgranddaughter.
“It’s kind of like the excitement of getting that elusivegame,” said Artibani.
To contact the reporters on this story:Cotten Timberlake in Washington at ctimberlake@bloomberg.netChris Burritt in Greensboro, North Carolina, at 1348 or cburritt@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: November 27, 2009 13:20 EST
best buy Co. Inc. this week will discount titles for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 to under $20 in a Black Friday sale.
Topic: Black Friday 2009Posted on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:57:51 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr
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