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Early Signs Indicate Black Friday Will be Pretty Good for Retailers
11/24/09 - 03:33 PM

Associated Press

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Early signs indicate Black Friday will be pretty good for retailers, who are eager to put last year’s holiday shopping season behind them for good.

2008 served up a lump of coal for the retail business as it recorded the worst shopping season in 40 years.

Now a new survey says more shoppers are planning to head out on Black Friday to scour stores for doorbuster deals.

The National Retail Federation released a survey today (Tuesday) that projects Black Friday shopping could jump more than 16 percent this year. The report says 57 million people plan to shop on the day after Thanksgiving. That’s about 8 million more than last year.

Shoppers may not be free spenders as the troubled economy continues to weigh on their minds and pocketbooks, but retailers are still hoping for a three to four percent increase in sales.

Rick McAllister of the Florida Retail Federation says stores will try to accommodate an increase in shoppers with longer hours and some eye-popping bargains.

“Shoppers typically equate to buyers, though you don’t always know that. The Friday after Thanksgiving has gotten to be a tradition among families. People spend Thursday eating turkey and watching television and taking a little rest and plotting and scheming their Friday plans because some of them get up at midnight, some of them get up at three or four o’clock in the morning.”

“We feel good about the predictions that more shoppers will be out. Typically that does mean more consumer spending and that’s a good sign.”

“There are doorbusters and most of them will have a traditional flyer that says here are the things that are available at X-hour. But others are taking a little different tack and saying why don’t we spread these out a little bit so we don’t hurt anybody when the doors open and so at different hours during the day there will be some very special doorbusters that are available.”

“Inventories are not as deep as they have been in the past. They’re broad. There’s a lot of breadth in offerings, but they’re not as deep because retailers projecting that sales are not going to be that robust are saying, ‘Let’s not get stuck with having to discount merchandise 90 percent to get rid of it at the end of the season.’ So what I’ve been advising people this year is if you see something you want and it’s the right price you better buy it because it may not be there when you come back.”

McAllister says retailers have a lot of different products to offer this holiday shopping season, but the inventories are not deep because stores are concerned about getting stuck with a lot of merchandise. He’s advising consumers to grab an item right away if they find it at the right price.

The survey shows about 10 percent of shoppers say they are planning to get a jump on the shopping season by hitting stores between midnight and 3 a.m. on Black Friday - the day that retailers’ sales typically go into the black for the year.

Another nearly 30 percent say they intend to snag the early-bird specials between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.

The survey also indicates 134 million people plan to shop on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.