By Betsy Avelar Staff Writer
Gilroy
– Donna Lewis and Karina Castro awoke long before the sun rose,
looking for a deal that would soon vanish.
Gilroy – Donna Lewis and Karina Castro awoke long before the sun rose, looking for a deal that would soon vanish.
The pair were just two of thousands who ventured out on what has become known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and one of the major shopping days heavily promoted by retailers and known for the infamous long lines outside and at the cash registers.
“I’ve heard some pretty bad stories about the day after Thanksgiving,” said Castro, who drove from Santa Cruz. “I heard people get uptight so I expected worse.” She pushed a bright orange cart from Target packed with toys for her children. The commute from Santa Cruz obliged her to wake at 3:45am, but the ads from newspapers and television encouraged her to come out to Gilroy.
More than 200 customers stood outside Target’s doors to buy $98 Kodak digital cameras, toys for less than $15, and electronics specials.
While some customers shopped calmly, others did so desperately. Regardless, store managers and sales representatives were out in force.
“Were just trying to keep our merchandise available to the guests, so they can find what they need and leave quickly,” said Darla Thompson, Target store manager.
But before Target opened, the Gilroy Premium Outlets opened their doors at midnight, and traffic was backed up on 10th Street and on U.S. 101 in both directions starting at 11pm Thursday.
One worker at Coach, who was letting people in the doors in shifts, said the line stretched for hundreds of yards, halfway around the shopping center, in the middle of the night.
While Black Friday officially starts the holiday shopping season, generally it’s no longer the busiest day of the season – that honor now falls to the last Saturday before Christmas. Stores say Black Friday sets the tone for the overall season, however: What consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the season.
Last year, total Black Friday sales dipped 0.9 percent to $8 billion from the year before, dampened by deep discounting, according to Shopper Trak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 45,000 mall-based retail outlets. For the Thanksgiving weekend, total sales rose just 0.4 percent to $16.8 billion. Even so, merchants ended up meeting their holiday sales projections, helped by a last-minute buying surge and post-Christmas shopping.
This year, analysts expect robust holiday sales gains for the retail industry, though the pace is expected to be slower than a year ago. The National Retail Federation projects a 5 percent gain in total holiday sales, less than the 6.1 percent during the same period a year ago.
Betsy Avelar attends Gavilan College and is an intern for the South Valley Newspapers. Reach her at (408) 847-7216 or [email protected].
