Shop Talk

Starbucks, coffee shops see collateral benefit from Black Friday

Black Friday bargain hunting is a marathon, requiring a shopper to be alert and aggressive to outmaneuver rivals for that last $200 LCD TV at Target. But with so many retailers opening their doors at midnight, why bother going to sleep? Even if you shopped at Kohl’s, which opened at 3 am or J.C. Penney, at 4 am, you were in for very short night for most.

So bleary-eyed shoppers turned out in drove at U.S. malls on Friday, with lines at coffee shops among the longest.

Mall operator Macerich said on Friday that the Starbucks at its Tysons Corner Center in suburban Washington had lines 30 people deep at 11 a.m. At the Newport Center mall in Jersey City, exhausted shoppers could be seen forming a line of 20 to get much needed java.

After all, no one wants to be caught unawares when cashmere sweaters for 50 percent off are at stake.

(Reuters photo)

Black Friday comes early to Home Depot

For Home Depot, Black Friday comes in spring.

As many Americans prepare to spruce up their gardens, the world’s largest home improvement retailer will host “Spring Black Friday” — a weekend of regional door buster deals in March and April.

Like the traditional Black Friday that occurs the day after Thanksgiving to unofficially start the holiday shopping season, the home goods retailer hopes its spring event will jumpstart its busiest selling season.

Last month, Home Depot reported its first quarterly same-store rise in nearly four years and gave an upbeat full-year forecast as customers begin making bigger renovation projects.

From lawn products to patio and grills, the retailer will slash prices on several spring products in March and April.

“Spring is our Christmas,” said Craig Menear, executive vice president for merchandising. “Traffic in our stores is at its highest during the spring season.”

Check Out Line: How do I get to the closest Walmart?

Check out what has emerged as a hot online search term as the days remaining to buy holiday gifts quickly dwindle.

According to Hitwise,  last week searches for store locators reached their second highest peak since the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  For the week ending Dec. 12, searches for store locators  jumped 77 percent.

And just which stores were shoppers trying to locate?

Searches for ‘walmart store locator’ were the most popular and received 4.6 time more clicks than the 2nd ranked term –which was ‘marshalls store locator’.

 Staples, Target and Toys R Us rounded out the  top 5 store locators that drew shopper searches.

 Also in the basket:

Darden beats on profit, narrows 2010 EPS view

Check Out Line: Online shopping saving season?

Check out that cyber spending.

Cyber Monday ended barely a few hours ago and already the first reports are trickling in: online shopping looks like it may save the holiday season for retailers after Black Friday in bricks and mortars stores disappointed.  Online shopping looks to be headed for record levels.

According to a report released on Tuesday morning by Coremetrics, overall CyberMonday sales were up 13.7 percent over 2008 and the average order size soared 38.2 percent to $180.03. (Rival comScore is set to release its Cyber Monday results on Wednesday)

Online shopping has been growing for years, and may be getting a boost from shoppers eschewing Black Friday madness.  For instance, Stephen Metz, a 29-year old bartender we caught up with at a Brooklyn mall on Friday at 6:30 a.m., said he would wait for Cyber Monday to do the bulk of his shopping.

“What’s quicker than getting up and firing up your computer?” he asked. (He was at the mall to check out the crowds after his shift ended but picked up lingerie from Victoria’s Secret for his girlfriend)

While the news is encouraging, online shopping makes up only a small fraction of overall sales. On Thursday, we will find out more definitively how well, or poorly, U.S. retailers fared over this past Black Friday when stores release their November sales data.

Also in the basket:

Chicago Tribune treats Cyber Monday shoppers – in stores

The Chicago Tribune is giving the gift of a free issue to Cyber Monday shoppers.  Online, right?  Wrong.  This free newspaper (a 75 cent value) only applies to shoppers who actually venture out to stores today.

The bankrupt newspaper appears to understand the discrepancy.  In a statement, the Tribune defines Cyber Monday as the online version of Black Friday, which is the day when millions of shoppers hit stores. 

Today, many of those shoppers are back in the office — and who knows, maybe they’re using their fast Internet connections to shop online.  At least, that’s why Cyber Monday grew in popularity a few years ago, when many people still had dial-up or even no Internet connections at home.

“Chicago Tribune is here this season to help you make the holidays memorable on a budget.  We hope this free copy highlighting the best deals will help so you can spend more time with friends and family and less wondering where to find bargains,” senior vice president of advertising Bob Fleck said in a statement.

It’s a bit of a strecth to say that the issue really highlights Cyber Monday.  Readers must flip to page seven for offers the paper suggests readers take advantage of (during their lunch break).  What can they choose from?  If someone is spending the day online, why not do it from the comfort of a new $139.97 Sweetheart Rocker chair from Classic Oak Designs?  If their eyes hurt from squinting to look at a small computer screen, they could upgrade to a 21.5 inch model from Staples, and save $60 or $70 — $60 according to Staples.com, $70 according to the paper.

The newspaper also has an online page dedicated to holiday sales and deals.

We’re not sure, but perhaps the Trib is making the paper free today to cheer up readers who had to shell out $1.99 for Thursday’s Thanksgiving issue filled with ads aimed at Black Friday shoppers.  It was the second year in a row that the paper raised the Thanksgiving price at newsstands to $1.99.  The normal daily price is 75 cents.

Black Friday is a flat-screen TV

Americans were united this weekend in the hunt for cheap electronics. It looks like the biggest Black Friday deals out there were for flat-screen televisions at around $400 (remember when $1,000 was considered a discount?) and laptops under $500.      “Last year, Blu-ray players that were selling for probably $200 were selling for closer to $130 this year. Television sets that were selling for $599 last year were selling for $399 this year,” said Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation.

Best Buy’s chief Brian Dunn also told us flat-screen TVs and netbooks were hot sellers, but added that that might not be enough to prevent a tough holiday overall.      Retailers used these discounts as a lure to get people into stores or browsing websites and entice them to purchase other stuff. But the U.S. consumer caught on to the strategy and just bought the TV and left. Or drove to another store if the TVs were sold out.      Shoppers also did their homework, maybe more so than in any previous year. Traffic to Amazon.com and Walmart.com rose 28 percent and 22 percent, respectively, on Black Friday, according to comScore. Traffic to Apple.com rose 39 percent.      Google Insights for Search says searches for the term “consumer electronics” tripled over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, while other favorite holiday categories like toys rose 50 percent.

Reuters photo

Black Friday: The Ecstasy and the Agony

The annual ritual began with all the proper signs. Shoppers lined up before midnight on Friday. Some wore pajamas, others imbibed hot coffee or alcohol. Store managers straightened rows of sweaters and blew dust mites off flat-screen TVs while their doors remained closed.       Then the rush started. There were fights over toy hamsters, a clamor for laptops under $500 and even a leather jacket or two was purchased. Retailers prayed and tried to banish the ghosts of a terrible 2008.

Traffic was strong. Americans left malls with more shopping bags in their hands than a year ago. And yet.

ShopperTrak told us today that sales were only up 0.5 percent on Black Friday. In 2008, when the banking system seemed on the verge of collapse and global recession loomed, sales rose 3 percent on Black Friday.      We know it is still early in the season. We remember from last year that it is very hard to call the holiday season. But we can’t help but wonder, what happened?

Reuters photo

Black Friday: That time when retail CEOs don’t shop

How important is it for top executives to know what their customers think of the businesses that they run? Most agree that it helps, but on Black Friday, chief executives of two of the country’s most popular venues for frenzied, over-caffeinated shoppers said they don’t shop at their stores at that time of year.

We could think of plenty of good reasons not to hit the chaos scenes known as big-box retailers on Black Friday. For one thing, it’s crowded and you have to wait in line all day while you’re holding boxes of stuff. Add a couple of cranky toddlers, and you could envision hundreds of reasons to stay home.

The CEOs of Best Buy and Toys “R” Us have different explanations.

“This is my 25th year in a row I am working on Black Friday… so I don’t get the chance to shop,” Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn told Reuters in an interview. “I work it, they shop.”

Toys R Us CEO Jerry Storch prefers the old, reliable punching bag: He blames the media. “Mostly on Black Friday, I talk to you!” Storch said.

(Photo: Reuters)

Black Friday: Chase pursues a (very) direct marketing plan

You can spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign if you have something to sell. Alternately, you can try some cheaper experiments and hope that downmarket charm trumps slickness.

Somebody liked the latter idea at the Chase bank branch on Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan, as this picture, taken by one of our editors, Leslie Gevirtz, shows.

We can’t decide if this is a Black Friday coup of marketing genius or if one of the tellers was forced to use only materials in the branch’s broom closet. After all, this is the heart of Times Square, a place where every square millimeter is available for your ad, and at very high prices. Major corporations rarely spare expenses — or electricity — in presenting their best advertising campaigns in the heart of the U.S. financial capital. On the other hand, Chase *is* handing out $100 to everyone who starts an account. Maybe that’s the ad budget, already spent.

Black Friday: Tourists rescue New York

Though many New Yorkers complain that tourists are underfoot and in their way, retailers across the city see them, and their strong euros, pounds and Canadian dollars, as a blessing.

Tourists helped Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store last quarter perform in line with the chain’s other stores, and Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren told Reuters on Friday that lately he was hearing more languages besides English than ever on the store floor.

Judging by some of the shoppers Reuters interviewed this week, visitors from abroad plan to spend plenty in New York:

- “Stuff is always cheaper here anyway and even more so with the dollar,” said Katy Moore, a visitor from Ireland, who was shopping at Foot Locker on Thanksgiving day.

-  Laurence Moran, a 30 year-old actor visiting from London, was waiting in line with a couple hundred people outside the Abercrombie & Fitch in Manhattan to splurge… on himself. Weak pound or not, Moran said he could not resist the Black Friday sales.

- Deb Curley, a British tourist in her 60s, said , “The toy stores here are crazy. We have nothing like this in England.”

In addition to these shoppers, Reuters encountered tourists from Israel, the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Venezuela, Vietnam and many other countries intent on shopping til they drop.