Athens’ Black Friday not as dark as some expected
By Ashlee Monroe
December 1, 2008
With consumer confidence and spending declining this fall as a recession kicks in, many economists worried that this year’s Black Friday shopping day would reflect the worsening economy.
But turnout for the sales-packed day after Thanksgiving in Athens did not seem to be too impacted by the economic woes. Shoppers turned out at The Market on State (formerly the University Mall) and Wal-Mart starting at 4 a.m. Friday to look for bargains, filling up the stores’ parking lots much more than usual. Meanwhile, in uptown Athens, Court Street wasn’t seeing big crowds, though that’s not unusual after the students have left town for Ohio University’s winter break.
The apparently healthy shopping day on East State Street, if the sales figures match the full parking lots and crowded stores, goes along with a generally healthy shopping day nationally.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported, “The nation’s retailers got a much-needed sales boost from Black Friday’s traditional shopathon as consumers, lured by deep discounts, spent nearly 3 percent more than last year.”
The article cited preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago firm that monitors sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, reporting that sales Friday rose to $10.6 billion from about $10.3 billion last year.
“We did great,” said an Elder Beerman representative at the Athens store about shopping there on Friday. “We did a lot better than last year.”
Things were looking up for the Athens Elder Beerman store during the late morning hours of Black Friday. Store manager Heather Nichols and managers Sherrie Norman and Shanna Curry said sales were already trending ahead of last year’s at that point. That could have something to do with the dramatically lower prices that stores like Elder Beerman offer on Black Friday to bump up sales. The store offered “doorbuster” sales this year from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. that may have attracted local consumers, who are spending on a tighter budget this year, reflecting the national trend.
“We agreed to cut back this year,” confirmed Mary Jane Cotter of Glouster. She and her sister Diana Ginnean make a tradition of shopping for holiday deals in Athens and Columbus, where her sister lives. The sisters said that this year fears of an unsteady economy just encouraged them to spend on a tighter budget, but not to halt holiday spending altogether.
Childhood friends Kelly Houg from Van Wert, Ohio, and Melissa Horn from Charlotte, N.C. visited The Market on State, but said they were holding off on spending on Black Friday.
“I went into Bath and Body Works, but I had to leave because I was so stressed out by the crowds,” Houg said. The two were with their children in the mall’s new play area.
“We needed to run off some of that turkey,” Houg joked. Houg and Horn said they are making a conscious effort to spend less during this year’s holiday season.
The economy did not appear to stop holiday shoppers from turning out to big-box stores in Athens, but businesses uptown weren’t seeing big crowds, at least as of around noon.
Historically, uptown stores, when OU students are gone, don’t see as big of crowds as the East State shopping district.
Final sales figures were not available at The Athens NEWS’ press time Sunday, but representatives from The Other Place and Mountain Laurel Gifts, both on South Court Street, projected sales much lower than expected about halfway through Friday. This could be explained by the larger trend of more cautious consumer spending. With the lack of heavily slashed prices that chain stores like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s can offer on Black Friday, local consumers may have turned more toward corporate businesses that have enough sales volume to withstand lower profit margins.
The Associated Press story noted that, “Although it isn’t a predictor of overall holiday-season sales, Black Friday is an important barometer of people’s willingness to spend. Last year, it was the biggest sales generator of the season.”
Yet, the article quoted experts who cautioned that this year’s Black Friday sales growth may be hard to sustain through the holiday shopping season, “which has 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of last year’s 32.”
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