Comments on: Black Friday Shopping Update

By: nsambol

nsambol — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:12:59 +0000

Just back from the Palisades Mall in Rockland county, in metro NY. Palisades is a mid-level mall, not upscale like the Westchester in White Plains.

We arrived around 2pm and were able to snag a highly-coveted underground parking spot. Last year we had trouble getting an outside spot.

Mall was pretty crowded but not unreasonably so. Quite a few people with packages. Food court was hopping but not so much for the day after Black Friday.

One thing I noticed was that stores without significant sales had NO traffic – literally no one inside the store. Esprit was one of these.

Even Old Navy, usually PACKED this time of year was not very busy. The line at the register was only 10 people long. Not bad at all.

Once again, sales were not so great. 20-40% off was the average. Nothing to write home about.

My guess is that the door-busters ran out and people were not as interested in opening their wallets.

Time will tell.

By: damonleo

damonleo — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:35:29 +0000

My experience in NYC was modest foot traffic at the Old Navy and TJ Max on 6th Avenue and 18th Street. Did not resemble what would be expected for a Black Friday. However, the most telling account of my shopping experience was a German man telling me “it is like shopping for free here in America”. What a disgrace this country has become.

By: torrie-amos

torrie-amos — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:51:52 +0000

well the black friday numbers are out, up by 35%, i got this feeling this is the best we will get, if most people acted like me, heck even i was considering going to buy an lcd/tv and i’ve never in my life, i didn’t cause we put off the idea altogether, yet, i’d spent a month researching type and price and if idda bought it would have been yesterday, because, well, they were cutting prices like no tommorrow

By: preames

preames — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:47:05 +0000

Here in middle America (Kalamazoo, MI) doesn’t seem to be good news for retail. I was at Gander Mountain today and their were plenty of spaces in the parking lots. Most of the traffic at GM was in the gun department. Rest of store, not so much. Lowes, same story, not a very full parking lot. Not much traffic congestion either.

By: nsambol

nsambol — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:26:17 +0000

Went to the Westchester Mall, yesterday, in White Plains – about 3pm. Busy but not as much as I thought it would be. Going on a field trip to the Palisades Mall in Rockland county today.

Not too impressed with the sales – 20% off any purchase of $100 or more (I think that was the Limited).

Saw a lot of people with bags but not as much as i I thought there would be.

By: arthur.i

arthur.i — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:41:41 +0000

There is a very large mall called Bahia Sur that is smack dab in the middle of a collection of beach communities here at the tip of Europe in the southern most part of Spain on the Atlantic coast. There are perhaps a half a million people within a 35 mile radius.

Spain as you probably know is suffering horrendous unemployment, above 17 % and rising. They have had a similar boom and bust in their residential property market similar to the U.S. Prices, peak to current trough are not down as much as the U.S. but they are still falling.

The mall and stores were packed. The parking lot was jammed and the police were out directing traffic and assisting people to find areas to park. Once inside though people seemed to be looking and having coffee and drinks over looking the bay and seemed not to be buying much. There is a large food supermarket, Carrefour, kind of like a Wall Mart, and they were packed and people were filling shopping carts with food. Their prices for food are the lowest in the area and their vast variety is unparalleled as well.

Outside of the food department it seemed that people were gravitating towards the cheapest products, TVs, computers, etc. and not much traffic around the high end stuff. Which is a bit of a cultural change for the Spaniards – normally when they do buy something they really want to “flash” and usually lean towards the high end expensive stuff.

IMO, people like to go out and mingle with the crowd and shopping offers an opportunity to do that. You don’t actually have to buy much or anything to enjoy that part of the experience.

As for me, I too honored National Buy Nothing Day (as I do most days of the year).

By: Init4good

Init4good — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:39:30 +0000

I bought a “no name” 22″ LCD TV for my daughter for $199 and a Samsung blu-Ray player for $149 at Radio Shack. Some other store had a no name 32″ flat TV for $249 and I heard they were sold out very early as well. At 07:30am the little Radio Shack store was crowded and they were sold out of the 22″ TV. I predict that bargain TVs (ie Target/BestBuoy/etc) will be a big hit this year. Oh yeah my wife hit the Target about 08:00am and could not get out of the parking lot when she left – it took her 1/2 hr to get to the main street.

By: How the Common Man Sees It

How the Common Man Sees It — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:20:31 +0000

Had a lovely afternoon at an artists’ sale… ;^)

That’s very cool. How much do artists go for these days? ;)

@The Curmudgeon Says:November 27th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

One of the little blessings of having a loved one in a hospital during Thanksgiving

I hope it allowed you to find something to be thankful for outside the madness of daily life

Peace to your situation friend.

By: ZackAttack

ZackAttack — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:58:19 +0000

I honored National Buy Nothing Day, so my only connection to this was to be annoyed by the traffic as I headed out of town to a park.

By: CuriousCreature

CuriousCreature — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:42:35 +0000

I live in Deschutes County (Sisters) Oregon. An area especially hard hit by the depression. Hey, I’m calling it like I see it… Mom stayed over and we got up at 5am, drove to Bend and hit Macys, JCPenney, Staples and Starbucks. All nicely packed except for Staples. My personal job situation is far better this year, but I still spent a modest amount. Did the smart thing and paid my bills the day before hitting the mall. Just bought what what needed to be repaired or replaced.

If I had a large family I would have been much more aggressive. What’s not to love about a $7 winter coat?

Curious