Black Friday shoppers made their time-tested rounds from one sale to another Friday morning, but some were more weary than in past years after pulling all-nighters on the retail circuit.
Approximately 20 stores at Westfield Vancouver mall stayed open for 24 hours, and most others closed around 1 a.m. and re-opened on Thanksgiving at 8 a.m. or earlier. “Thursday traffic was up versus last year, and the holiday atmosphere was fun and festive like no other, said Chris Yeats, the mall’s marketing director.
By Friday morning, some of the mall’s sofas were occupied by exhausted teens, including two sisters from Battle Ground who said they were waiting for their mother to complete another round of shopping at J.C. Penney after spending most of the night shopping.
Kim Flanery, service and training manager at the Old Navy in Westfield Vancouver mall, said a crowd of about 50 shoppers waited for the store’s 6 p.m. opening Thanksgiving evening. Then the store stayed open all night. There was a drop-off in customers from 1 to 5 a.m. but a return of steady traffic in later morning hours. By 8 a.m., when the new wave of shoppers was just arriving, the store’s midnight work crew was ready to head home.
While morning traffic at Westfield was hardly a mob scene, the mall drew plenty of bargain-hunters including many multigenerational families out to enjoy time together on a four-day weekend. Among them were three generations of women who, while not on an overnight shopping adventure, were at least making a full morning of it.
Family affairs
Kaylee Atchison, a 20-year-old student at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, was well into making the rounds with mother Shannon Atchison of Tillamook, Ore., aunt Sheri McCormack of Vancouver, and grandmother Joyce Hollingsworth of Vancouver when they reached Old Navy at around 8:30 a.m.. They’d already been to Fred Meyer and Sears, and still ahead were J.C. Penney and beauty products store Ulta.
“I’m not spending that much money,” Kaylee said, before revising her statement: “I guess I’m trying not to spend that much money.” Her best deal so far was a pair of $60 boots for $20.
Likewise, Shannon Atchison said she was keeping close tabs on spending, as is her practice. “I have the same budget as last year,” she said. “I have a cash envelope.”
Over at J.C. Penney, Andrea Sipes of Felida hit the aisles with daughters Kaitlin, 14, and Bailey, 16. The trio started their day with a trip to Fred Meyer for socks and DVDs before arriving at the mall. At J.C. Penney, they snatched up toys and other bargain items.
“I’ve always shopped on Black Friday, but this year my high school girls are old enough to come with me and enjoy it,” Andrea Sipes said.
No one needed to ask whether Mike and Renee Barkley of Shelton were having a good time. Mike wore a Santa hat that bore his name (“because I like Christmas,” he explained) and Renee smiled her way through the checkout. With daughter Brianna Barkley, a student at Western Washington University in Bellingham, they’d already shopped at Wal-Mart, Target, Kohls, and twice at Fred Meyer before Penney’s.
Mike and Renee’s shopping list includes about 20 people including their six children, ages 7 to 30. And their time was short because they’re headed to Disneyland soon, Renee said. As for their budget: “We always spend a lot,” she said.
Other venues
Nordstrom, closing out its final year at Westfield Vancouver mall, made a late entrance with an opening just before 9 a.m. There were no lines outside its doors and few marked Black Friday specials inside.
The store is set to close on Jan. 10, as is the Nordstrom at Portland’s Lloyd Center, as the company sheds some of its outlets. No replacement has been named for the Westfield retail space.
At other shopping venues, Black Friday deals drew large crowds to Fred Meyer and Target stores in the county. At Portland’s Jantzen Beach, a couple dozen early risers waited outside Best Buy just after 7 a.m. for that store’s bargain prices on electronics.
At Wal-Mart’s SuperCenter store at Southeast 192nd Avenue and Mill Plain Boulevard, there were few signs of Black Friday activity mid-morning.
Clerks stood next to their registers awaiting customers, and relatively few shoppers scoured the shelves for deals.
Trish Worster of Vancouver filled her cart with gift wrap and toys for the 18 children, ages 1 to 18, in her extended family. She and an uncle had worked their way through Kohls and Target before coming to Wal-Mart. Their best deal was on half-price toys at Target.
And Danielle McKenzie, also of Vancouver, shopped with her 2-year-old son, who was considering whether he preferred Batman or Spider Man slippers. “I just came to see what the deals are,” she said.
Statistical wrapup
Nationally and locally, there are high hopes for a strong November-December holiday shopping season, a period that last year accounted for 20 percent of all retail sales. The National Retail Federation predicts retail sales will increase by 4.1 percent increase over 2013.
The signs are also encouraging in Clark County. The state’s most recent retail sales report, covering April 1 through June 30, recorded a 5.7 percent jump in sales in Clark County compared with the same quarter in 2013. That inflation-adjusted increase was one of the highest of any county in the state. Meanwhile, Clark County’s economy expanded in October at its fastest pace in nearly a decade, adding 7,300 jobs over the year. But one dark cloud for the retail industry is that consumers’ median wages are just barely increasing.
Despite grumbling in some quarters about the encroachment of shopping on the Thanksgiving holiday, there’s little doubt that many people want to hit the malls after their turkey dinner. A National Retail Federation survey found that 20 percent more people shopped after Thanksgiving dinner in 2013 than in 2012. And while the number of Thanksgiving day shoppers rose by 11 percent last year, Black Friday shoppers dropped by 11 percent, according to industry source ShopperTrak.
But what about those middle-of-the-night shoppers? Were they out late on “Gray Thursday” or early on Black Friday? We’ll have to wait for next year’s survey for an answer.
