Millions of Americans will descend on big-box retailers, shopping malls and local boutiques this weekend, kicking off a .
And while online sales continue to grow — more consumers than ever before will turn to the web for gifts, according to — brick-and-mortar sales remain a major piece of the holiday retail pie.
Black Friday is still one of the busiest weekends of the year at Best Buy. Store managers across the giant retail chain have been planning for months to make sure that the mega-sales event that has evolved into a tradition for many families, goes off without a hitch.
“It’s time,” general manager James Robinson told the 80 to 90 employees gathered for a pep talk early Saturday morning in Best Buy Store No. 217’s home-theater department. “This is our Super Bowl.”
It was all hands on deck at the store at Interstate 225 and East Mississippi Avenue in Aurora — though there was not a customer in sight.Employees trickled in before 7 a.m., the designated start time for the .
With coffee mugs and energy drinks in hand, employees got their holiday-weekend assignments, closely scheduled down to when they would take their breaks during their shifts.
Sorted by department, they huddled throughout the store to go over expectations — memorizing the sale flyer, for one — and get all manner of questions answered about how the next week would unfold. The morning ended with a quick practice run at the registers, with store employees playing the role of energetic Black Friday customers.
You won’t see any YouTube videos of people rushing the doors here.
Best Buy, as the store’s Black Friday newbies learned, hands out color-coded tickets to the people waiting in line for the door-buster deals starting about two hours before the store opens.
Once the numbered tickets run out for a specific item, say , that item is gone. Employees were encouraged by Robinson to be “incredibly clear” about that fact with customers.
“We don’t want to hang them up, make them wait hours to get into the building and then be disappointed,” Robinson told the staff. “This is really, really a big day for our customers as much as it is for us.”
“The fourth quarter is still the biggest quarter of our year and Black Friday is still the kickoff,” Robinson said in an interview. “It’s a long marathon starting Thanksgiving and running clear into January.”
According to the National Retail Federation, — some 137.4 million people — are expected to shop online or in-person between Thanksgiving Day and Sunday.
How much of that will come from people lining up for deals Thursday and Friday, though, remains to be seen. More , although some, like Best Buy, still have a few in-store exclusives.
Best Buy, of course, is one of many national retailers that will be open on Thanksgiving as well as Black Friday. Target, Walmart, Macy’s, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Toys “R” Us and Dick’s Sporting Goods are among the others this year.
Company spokeswoman Bianca Jones said Best Buy likes to say that customers vote with their feet.
“That’s why we continue to be open during this time frame,” she said. “Customers are excited about what we’re offering. They look at our ad ahead of time and they know there are some really good deals in there. This is really for them.”
If shoppers didn’t show up, retailers would likely stop opening on Thanksgiving Day, said Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry analyst for The NPD Group. But that hasn’t been the case, with something like 22 percent of the population participating in Black Friday in some way.
“The retailers have to compete. They’ve basically said we’re not going to give this day away (to online merchants),” he said. and that the deals are good enough to do it.”
Overall, the holiday shopping season should be a little bit better than last year, although Cohen projects an increase of 2.8-3.2 percent, slightly below NRF’s projected 3.6 percent.
“Consumers are in a little healthier position, the economy is a little healthier. Price points on key items are lower. And retailers are going to be more aggressive about promoting,” Cohen said. “Add that all up and it spells out a little growth.”
Robinson, who’s celebrating his 15th Black Friday with Best Buy, said he still expects to see customers lined up around the building by the time the doors open at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving. Stores will close at 1 a.m. and another set of doorbuster deals begin at 8 a.m. Friday.
“It’s still an event,” Robinson said. “Getting to see and talk to a family last year that came, lined up together, it’s truly an event. It’s amazing to see the energy from the customers. We open up the doors and there are customers that scream, ‘Yeah!’ ”
