Today’s a serious shopping day for serious shoppers.

Black Friday is no longer a sport for the leisurely shopper. From our late-night rounds, it became clear that people were lining up all over in the dead of night (and some earlier than that!) not just for the fun of it but out of necessity.

While many of the stoutest shoppers were grimly determined to get their deals and get out, there was some fun and holiday cheer.

At a Best Buy in Springfield, Pennsylvania at midnight, the 50 people in line created an atmosphere part football tailgate and part Department of Motor Vehicle tension. A card table was set up near the end of the line, but the reception on that end was quite frosty, possibly “enhanced” by the consumption of cheap beer.

But for the most part, the deals were the thing.

Take Nate Bryan of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, who arrived at 2:30 am EST this year to get a laptop for his daughter.

“It’s normally $1,000 and now cut in half. That $500 can go to other things,” he said.

Laptops and big ticket items are favorites of this day, but they are not the only items.

Debbie Techac, who works as a cashier at a supermarket, had waited for more than 12 hours outside a Best Buy in central Phoenix to buy a heavily discounted Dyson vacuum cleaner reduced to $329 from $549, two laptops — one of them a Sony — and some DVDs. She expected to buy the laptops for $200-$300.

While many shoppers are looking to scale back spending, some of our early risers had other plans.

Techac said she was spending about the same as last year, and felt fairly optimistic both about her own job security, and the outlook for the wider economy.

“I have job security. I work at Fry’s. It’s a grocery store, everybody has to eat … I think (the economy) is going to get better, I hope.”

Lou McAnany, a college student in Phoenix, was playing Monopoly on the sidewalk with his girlfriend to pass the time waiting for Best Buy to open. “I’m playing with fake money, wishing it were real,” he said with a chuckle.

McAnany was lining up to buy a 40-inch LCD television, although he was not yet sure what brand or model, paying around $300, with savings of around $400, as well as an iPod and a Nintendo Wii.

“I’m happy with the discounts, I wouldn’t be standing out all night if I weren’t. It seems like they are better than last year.”

So, with all this buying, everyone will get something, right?

Well…

“Anybody old enough to get a job,” is being cut off this year’s Christmas list said Ayanna Brown, a 34-year-old Brooklyn resident who worked as a bookkeeper at a legal firm but lost her job last year, is now back in school and will graduate in June.

“Around Christmas you have to splurge on the kids, so the grown-ups understand.”

How has your Black Friday been? Any fantastic deals you want to share? What’s Number One on your wish list?

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* What wine goes with pumpkin pie?

* No Thanksgiving rest for retailers in sales race

(Additional reporting by Phil Wahba, Tom Hals and Tim Gaynor)

(Reuters photos)

Lean inventory may be the secret weapon that retailers are depending on to survive the holiday season with earnings intact.

But consumers don’t exactly seem to be quaking in their boots at the prospects of finding empty racks this Christmas season.

According to the ICSC, with 18 days until Black Friday and 46 shopping days until Christmas, the consumer appears “unfazed” by reports of retailers running low on inventory.

The ICSC and Goldman Sachs’ 2009 Holiday Spending Survey found that 81 percent of consumers said lean inventories are not motivating them to shop earlier than in past seasons.

One culprit behind the nonchalance?  Gift cards.

According to the survey, 48 percent of holiday shoppers said that if they can not find the gift item they are looking for, they will buy a gift card.

“It is surprising that consumers are not willing to shop early for holiday gifts to get the best selection,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist.  “Bargains seemingly may matter more than selection for the consumer, which is why more consumers this year than in any recent time plan to shop on the day after Thanksgiving (16%) —which now should be dubbed Bargain Friday.”

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out the boost Coach is getting from its new Poppy line.

The leather goods retailer reported higher than expected quarterly profit and sales on Tuesday.

Coach said its new Poppy line, which is aimed at younger women with its bright colors and lower prices, helped increase store traffic from the previous quarter.

The average price of a Poppy bag is $260, about 20 percent less than the usual Coach purse. The line’s introduction is part of a plan by Coach to reduce overall prices by 10 to 15 percent and appeal to more cost-conscious shoppers.

Coach Chief Executive Lew Frankfort told Reuters in an interview that he expects earnings per share to show gradual improvement for the balance of the fiscal year when compared with the prior year.

“Consumers are starting to feel a bit more confident that the economy is stabilizing, that the outlook is no longer dire,” he said, adding that he expected a stronger holiday shopping season for the overall industry.

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US retail holiday sales seen up 1.6 pct - ShopperTrak

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FEATURE: Fewer holiday goods spurs US retail scramble

(Photo: Reuters)

Sears, the low-priced retailer known for its selection of Craftsman tools and kitchen appliances, is jumping on the beauty bandwagon.

The retailer is debuting beauty departments  — called Sears Beauty — in 13 mall locations in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

Sears Beauty will sell cosmetics, skin care, bath and body products, and fragrances by brands like L’Oreal, Maybelline, and CoverGirl. The offering, Sears says, is designed to help shoppers “achieve their ideal beauty results.”

Sears isn’t alone in wanting to help shoppers put their best face forward. JC Penney has installed Sephora locations inside many of its department stores, while Wal-Mart has reached a deal to sell an exclusive line of Hard Candy makeup in its discount stores.

Retailers look at cosmetics as a way to drive consumers into their stores more frequently, because shoppers typically need to purchase a new lipstick or restock their favorite body wash more often than they need to buy a new suit or replace their ride-on lawn mower.

To mark the opening of the beauty departments, Sears is offering a free cosmetic bag and brush set with any $25 cosmetics, fragrance or bath purchase, and a $10 Sears reward card with any $50 cosmetics, fragrance, or bath purchase.

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out the cost cutting formula failing at Sears.

In the past few weeks a slew of retailers, ranging from Target to Macy’s to Dillard’s, have posted results that were better than Wall Street expected, helped by cost cuts.  Retailers have done everything from freezing executive salaries to eliminating jobs to slowing store expansion plans.

But on Thursday, Sears reported a surprise loss in its second quarter while analysts were expecting a profit.

The company, controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, cut total costs and expenses 8 percent. But revenue fell 10.3 percent to $10.55 billion.

Sales at its Sears stores continued to suffer from the faltering housing market, which has sapped demand for its Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances.

Same-store sales at Sears fell 12.5 percent, while Kmart’s same-store sales slid 3.9 percent. Overall, same-store sales fell 8.6 percent, and the decline accelerated after slowing during the past two quarters.

“Ouch,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Gregory Melich in his note reviewing the results. “This morning’s 2Q miss was pretty much across the board, with weak comps and lack of gross margin expansion standing out.”

Bottom line, he said, Sears remains a weak retail asset.

Or, as Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter put it in his note entitled “Put a Fork In It” — “We continue to view Sears Holding as the most overvalued stock in our coverage.”

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Club stores accepting coupons (WSJ, subscription required)

Check out efforts to get serious back-to-school shopping underway.

Wal-Mart announced plans to start selling on Sunday a Compaq Presario laptop for $298.

Gary Severson, Wal-Mart U.S.’s senior vice president of home entertainment, told Reuters he thought the deal represented a “screaming value.”

The retailer also plans to cut the price of an Acer laptop with an 8-hour battery by $50 to $548. The computer has 3 gigabytes of memory, a 320 gigabyte hard drive and qualifies for a free upgrade to the Windows 7 operating system when it is released.

Retailers ranging from Wal-Mart, to Target, to J.C. Penney have outlined their plans to lure back-to-school shoppers. Penney is using a special website, jcp.com/teen, to reach web-savvy teenagers who shop for themselves in the back-to-school period but may have less money to do so this year.

But retailers are confronting cash strapped shoppers, who are watching their pennies as the unemployment rate rises and the housing market remains depressed.

Asked for his view of the back-to-school season, the Chief Executive of UPS, Scott Davis, said on a conference call it was too early to tell.

“We’ve not seen a lot of signs yet based on the air freight market and ocean freight market,” he said.

But he said Wal-Mart’s plans to increase its selection of laptop computers was a good sign and perhaps the back-to-school season would be better — a hope likely held by the entire retail industry.

Also in the basket:

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P.F. Chang’s, Chipotle, Domino’s top Street

(Photo\Reuters)

Wal-Mart has a plan to keep shoppers coming into its discount stores once the economy improves and it is called ”Project Impact.”

While the retailer lost customers during the boom years as shoppers spent their dollars in the brighter, cleaner stores of its competitors, Wal-Mart is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Under Project Impact it is renovating its U.S. discount stores,  widening its aisles, lowering fixtures, improving its signs, installing wooden floors, and adding skylights to present shoppers with a store that fees open and “friendly.”

Check out a little video of a prototype store.

(Photo: Reuters\Jessica Rinaldhi; Video\Lisa Baertlein)

Could Lee Scott be heading off to Stanford?

Scott will retire as CEO of the world’s largest retailer as of Feb. 1.

While Scott will remain chairman of the executive committee of the board after retiring as CEO, he gave a hint on Monday as to how he might spend some of his upcoming free time.

Speaking at a Wal-Mart meeting that was broadcast over the Internet, Scott said he has been asked by Stanford to be a visiting professor.

“It’s interesting being invited to be a visiting professor there because they sure as heck wouldn’t have let me in when I was younger, I guarantee you that,” Scott joked at the meeting.

According to a bio on Wal-Mart’s website, Scott received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Pittsburg State in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Reuters put a call in to Stanford. At the time this blog was published, the University was still working to confirm the invitation had been extended to Scott.

UPDATE:

Stanford got back to Reuters with an update.

Turns out, the Stanford Graduate School of Business has talked with Scott about the being a Denning Distinguished Fellow in Global Business and the Economy.

“I would be delighted if Lee can spend time at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, interacting with our students and faculty,” said Dean Robert L. Joss, in a statement provided to Reuters.

The school said talks are continuing.

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out the fifth straight drop in U.S. retail sales.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales fell 1.8 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted $355.66 billion following a revised 2.9 percent plunge in October.

Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales were down 1.6 percent in November after a revised 2.4 percent October fall.

One reason for the decline (besides the struggling consumer) – gas prices.  Gasoline sales plummeted a record 14.7 percent after falling 12.9 percent in October, the data showed. Prices at the pump have fallen significantly and that is reflected in the retail sales report, which compiles total sales by gasoline stations.

The data also showed that sales of furniture, electronics and clothing were up in November after decreasing in October.  Looks like those Black Friday deals were able to rouse skittish consumers into a spending mode.

But the question remains — how much have retailers put profits at risk to gain sales?

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(Photo/Reuters)

Check out retailer’s different views on future profits.
 
Kohl’s, the mid-priced department store, says it expects third quarter earnings to be better than expected, while upscale Nordstrom cut its forecast range.
 
That’s not to say that Nordstrom’s consumers are flocking to Kohl’s as the U.S. economy suffers. Kohl’s profit fell in the second quarter. But cutting inventory was enough for it raise its profit estimate for the full year. Deutsche Bank retail analyst William Dreher also said the company will be able to set itself apart with fresh merchandise because it cleaned out its inventory.
 
Nordstrom, meanwhile, cut its full-year profit outlook. But while its customers are spending less, the retail chain says they are not trading down.
 
And if they were, they certainly aren’t trading down to J.C. Penney, which saw a 36 percent drop in profit and forecast third quarter earnings below analysts’ estimates. Sales also fell 2.5 percent.
 
Also in the basket: 
 
H&M defies retail gloom as July sales top forecast
 
Swatch upbeat on H2 as Olympics boosts sales
 
Back-to-School discounts are deeper, more creative (N.Y.Times)

 (Photo: Reuters)