11/29/08 — By Ryan Smith and Keith Gushard
MEADVILLE TRIBUNE
In keeping with what seems to be a growing trend, Dwayne and Julie Marvin plan to stay local this holiday shopping season.
“We’re going to spend money where we make it,” Dwayne said as he and his wife left Big Lots at the Downtown Mall in Meadville, wrapping up their three-plus-hour Black Friday shopping trip.
The Townville residents said they first went to Wal-Mart in nearby Vernon Township around 6:30 a.m., mainly trying to take advantage of cut-rate bargains on a DVD player model which ended up being completely sold out. “There were probably 100 people in line when we walked in,” said Dwayne.
Still, the Marvins said they were able to find some other deals, all of which were welcome as the parents of four teenagers — like nearly everyone across the United States — try to cut back a little on their holiday spending this year.
Cautious shoppers around the country flocked to stores before dawn Friday to grab deals on everything from TVs to toys on the traditional start of the 2008 holiday shopping season, feared to be the weakest in decades.
Last year, the Thanksgiving shopping weekend of Friday through Sunday accounted for about 10 percent of overall holiday sales, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp.
The group hasn’t yet released estimates for Black Friday sales this year, but experts believe it will remain one of the season’s biggest selling days even as shoppers remain deliberate in their spending.
One of the items on Lisa Burdick’s list was pajamas for her children. “I was worried they’d be well picked over and gone, but they weren’t,” the Saegertown resident said.
Like the Marvins, “I try to shop locally,” Burdick said.
Burdick said she expects to spend about as much on Christmas presents this year as last. This year, she used her government economic stimulus check toward Christmas.
Despite the general economic gloom hanging over the season, local store managers expected — and saw — a decent business day for Black Friday, so named because it’s historically the day when a surge of shoppers helped stores break into profitability for the full year.
Some area store managers said sales were strong on Friday.
“We were super busy today,” said Mike Higham, manager of Peebles department store in the Park Avenue Plaza.
Higham said the store was about 3 percent higher in sales Friday than Black Friday 2007.
“It was the busiest first hour we’ve ever had,” said Higham. “We had savings coupons in the paper and that’s been a big draw.”
Kmart had about 300 people lined up when the store in Vernon Township opened at 6 a.m. Friday, said Chuck Schultz, store manager.
“That’s the biggest crowd we’ve had in my 11 years here,” said Schultz. “It was a big day.”
Electronics and toys were big movers at the store, he said.
“People were shopping for their kids,” he said. “They’ll buy for their kids first and skimp on themselves.”
Kim Whitehead, manager of City Limits, a clothing store and tanning shop at Meadville’s Downtown Mall, recently said her store’s sales this November have stayed pretty much the same as last year, even though the economy was better in 2007.
That store kicked off a three-day, storewide 20-percent-off sale on Friday. Making an extra effort to maintain its current sales momentum, an e-mailing campaign that offers coupons and alerts customers to clearances and other sales was recently started, according to Whitehead.
“That’s how you’ve got to move (the merchandise) out,” she said.
While it isn’t a predictor of holiday sales, the day after Thanksgiving is an important barometer of people’s willingness to spend for the rest of the season. Particularly this year, analysts will dissect how the economy is shaping buying habits in a season that many analysts predict could see a contraction in spending from a year ago.
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