Freezing temperatures and a sluggish economy couldn’t temper the
usual flock of dreary shoppers in the earliest hours of Black
Friday
– even in Morgan Hill where only a handful of retailers
participate in the annual shopping event.
Freezing temperatures and a sluggish economy couldn’t temper the usual flock of dreary shoppers in the earliest hours of Black Friday – even in Morgan Hill where only a handful of retailers participate in the annual shopping event.
Eric and Donna Taggart, of Irvine, started their shopping about 11 p.m. Thursday at Wal-Mart on Cochrane Road, where they waited in line about an hour before the holiday sale began. They shopped at Wal-Mart until about 3:30 a.m., then went up the street to Target.
They remained at Target with two enormous flat-screen televisions in their carts, browsing for more deals, at 5 a.m.
The Taggarts, who were visiting family in Gilroy for the holiday, said with the Black Friday specials, they spent $550 less than the regular prices for the 46-inch and 40-inch Christmas presents for other relatives.
“We didn’t expect to buy these things when we came here,” said Eric Taggart, pointing at the two giant boxes, which they were surprised to find at a deal they couldn’t resist.
The Taggarts said they had finished most of their Christmas shopping at Target, but returned to Wal-Mart less than an hour later.
Black Friday weekend, which ends Sunday, is known nationwide as the unofficial start to the winter holiday shopping season. Each year the day after Thanksgiving, millions of shoppers form lines and crowds to take advantage of one-time deals on electronics, toys, clothes and other wares.
More than 400 people stood in line before Target opened Friday, according to manager Scott MacKenzie. On Black Friday last year, about 250 customers waited in line for the store opening. Target is expecting more holiday sales this year than last year.
“Everything I hear says people are going to be spending more” than last year, MacKenzie said.
The parking lot was still full about 5 a.m., when temperatures were still in the low-30s and many of their windshields were working on their second layer of frost for the day.
Many of the shoppers who stood for hours in front of Target’s locked door the morning after Thanksgiving had specific deals and savings in mind. The store opened at 4 a.m., and one customer said she watched the first shopper exit with a cart full of big-ticket items before 4:10 a.m.
Ann Mari Rich said the line was “insane.” By 5:30, she was waiting near the checkout line with a cart containing three 26-inch Vizio flat-screen T.V.’s, which were marked down by about $100 each. Rich, a college student back home for Thanksgiving, said the T.V.’s were for her mother, brother and herself – and she spent “a couple hundred dollars” on other merchandise.
Rich, a Black Friday rookie, added that she anticipates spending “probably more than ever” on holiday shopping this year.
Planning just the opposite were Morgan Hill friends Lyn Fulkerson and Martha Koch who waited together in a second line with dozens of others inside the store – in Target’s electronics section – so Fulkerson could purchase an Ipod on sale. Fulkerson’s cart contained toys and other electronics items, but she expects to spend less this year partly for financial reasons.
“The kids don’t need as much,” she laughed. “And I don’t have enough money to spend.”
Black Friday veteran and Morgan Hill resident Chris Loesch also waited in the electronics line – for a Play Station 3 bundle, a $299 deal that included a game and DVD.
Loesch, who shops at the local store “every year” on Black Friday, said Friday morning’s line was the longest he has ever seen in front of Target.
And while standing in the electronics line, Loesch befriended Debbie Lincoln, also a Morgan Hill resident. Lincoln’s cart was full of a wide variety of Christmas presents, including toys and clothing, and she was in line again for an Ipod.
“I’m here for just a lot of good deals,” Lincoln said.
Down the street at Wal-Mart, shopping appeared to have subsided some by 6 a.m., as customers of both big-box stores reported some of the sales there began at midnight.
Jennifer Rountree, of Brentwood, was visiting her sister in Morgan Hill for the holiday, and decided to go to Wal-Mart early in the morning just because she happened to be awake. Perusing the toys section, her cart already contained Nerf toy guns, remote-controlled helicopters and other Christmas presents for her children and nephews.
Rountree also expects to spend less this year than last, for two reasons – “budgeting more and less spoiling,” she said.
Next door, Big 5 Sporting Goods opened at 5 a.m., and store manager Rosemary Sierraz said about 30 people were waiting in line by that time. The local store has seen an increasing amount of “overlapping sales,” in which customers return more often, since the same time last year, Sierraz said.
The most popular Black Friday items at Big 5 included exercise equipment and Bear Paw boots, Sierraz said.
Black Friday activity and other recent independent reports indicate that consumers are spending more money since the most troublesome part of the Great Recession ended this summer.
Nationwide, about 138 million shoppers will flock to similar retail stores throughout the Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s about 4 million more than the same weekend last year.
From July through October, the city of Morgan Hill collected about $1.3 million, or 12 percent more sales tax revenue than it did the same period last year. Typically the quarter from November to February each fiscal year sees higher sales tax revenues than other quarters, largely because of holiday shopping.
