Ka-ching!
Turkey-stuffed shoppers camped out in front of Poughkeepsie”™s Galleria Mall starting about 3 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, said Kate Waage, the mall”™s marketing director.
This was Waage”™s third year tracking the “Black Friday” phenomenon at the Poughkeepsie mall on Route 9; Â this year, the countdown started a bit earlier: “Target opened at 4 a.m. and JC Penney at 5 a.m. By 6 a.m., the entire mall was opened. People were literally running through the doors ”“ orderly, not pushing, but definitely running.”
That was good news for the mall”™s general manager of seven years, Joe Castaldo, who said Galleria generated 6 per cent more income on this year”™s Black Friday compared with 2006.
Will the trend continue? Castaldo hopes so, especially with the growing popularity of gift cards. “January was our worst month until the advent of the gift card,” he said. “Now, we are jammed in January. We also jumped on the bandwagon and started offering American Express cards in addition to mall gift cards. They are definitely popular.”
Woodbury Common Premium Outlet in Central Valley was among the handful of local retailers who started Black Friday at the stroke of midnight. The strategy has drawn hundreds of thousands of shoppers each year, and 2007 was no exception. At one point, the New York State Thruway was backed up five miles, lined with shoppers ready, willing and eager to fight for an opportunity to grab a bargain.
“It”™s more than just shopping ”“ ”˜Black Friday”™ is  becoming a traditional holiday ritual,” said Lisa Chevola, a Mt. St. Mary College student working the midnight to noon shift at the mall”™s Nike outlet. “Families strategize about when they will get there and take turns standing on line for each other.”
Melissa Mayfield, director of marketing, said Galleria at Crystal Run in Middletown opened its doors at 7 a.m., but its anchor stores opened earlier. “JC Penney opened at 4 a.m. Sears opened at 5 a.m. Target and Macy”™s both opened at 6 a.m.” Mayfield arrived at 6 a.m. and the mall was already packed. “The parking lot was full.” The majority of the stores reported an increase in the money they took in over 2006 Black Friday revenue, said Mayfield. “Stores like Target really had some great discounts, and those sales drew the people in. It was a good start to the season.”
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The Retail Council of New York”™s 5,000 members are optimistic about the 2007 holiday season, with more than 75 per cent predicting their season will be as “strong or stronger than 2006,” said James R. Sherin, the council”™s president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Despite negativity on the part of many economic analysists, our members appear to be upbeat and have realistic expectations of what lay ahead.”
Andrew Buss, a retail analyst with Archstone Consulting in Greenwich, Conn., said high-wage earners in the greater metro area and its immediate surrounds won”™t be as concerned with what they pay for holiday gifts. “But even the top exec may bypass that expensive trinket at Neiman Marcus,” said Buss. Â “People are being more conservative than they have in years past. Tighter credit restrictions and worries about what 2008 will bring are having an effect on the public”™s spending habits.”
Archstone surveyed 1,000 people nationwide, finding 37 percent received gift cards during the 2006 holiday season. “Out of that number, 70 percent expressed a preference for bank cards over store cards, which means retailers must become creative and find a way to lure those bank card customers into their stores, either through special promotions or discounts.”
Last year, $25 billion in gift cards were given as gifts; Buss says that number will rise to $35 billion this season. “And because of the recalls in the toy industry, a gift card from a national chain like Build A Bear or Toys R Us lets the  parents decide what to buy for their children, taking the heat off the gift giver.”
Buss said 2007 has clearly “been a tough year for retailers overall. We forecast 3 percent growth for 2007, and that is not an astonishingly great number. Food prices, gasoline and heating fuel prices, are continuing to rise. For many, these factors are going to make life a challenge.”
Black Friday”™s $40 billion in nationwide sales were followed up by “Cyber Monday,” when online shoppers hit the Internet to rack up merchandise with a mouse click. Many retailers offered free shipping for any size order, a departure from past years. This year”™s Cyber Monday sales are expected to top last year”™s, said Ellen Davis, senior director of the National Retail Federation. “We won”™t have all the statistics compiled for a while yet, but Internet shopping is definitely becoming a preference for many.”
Next time your coworkers go “out to lunch” and stay at their desks, chances are they might be doing a little holiday shopping in the aisles of cyberspace.
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