Retail stores around the nation, including in the Golden Triangle, have seen an influx of shoppers this holiday season, with bargain hunters flooding the aisles to snap up last-minute deals for others as well as themselves.
Black Friday was the big day at the Columbus Kmart, with people lining up outside at 5 a.m. to be the first inside when the store opened, according to Assistant Manager Orzie McCoy.
“It was a full house,” McCoy said. “There were a lot of older people running toward electronics and where the scooters and bikes were.”
At the Starkville Goody’s, Black Friday was also a big day, with the store pulling in around $16,000 in sales, but Dec. 23 easily surpassed it, topping out at $20,000 in sales, according to Assistant Manager De’Marco Somby.
He said the store’s propensity for offering numerous coupons on special deals seemed to draw people in, making it easy for them to shop. In addition, 17 shoppers attempted to open charge accounts to get an extra 10 percent to 30 percent off. Eight accounts were approved, which is a lot for one day, Somby said.
It’s the latest shift by consumers in the fourth year of a weak U.S. economy. Shoppers are expected to spend $469.1 billion during the holiday shopping season that runs from November through December. While it won’t be known just how much Americans spent until the season ends Saturday, it’s already clear they are shopping differently than they have in years past.
“We’re seeing different types of buying behavior in a new economic reality,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group.
Cost-conscious shoppers haven’t just been looking for bargains this season. They’ve also been more deliberate about when to find those deals. Many believe the biggest bargains come at the beginning and end of the season, which has created a kind of “dumbbell effect” in sales.
For the week ending Nov. 26, which included the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, stores had the biggest sales surge compared with the previous week since 1993, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Stores Sales Index. Then, stores had another surge in the final days, as retailers stepped up their promotions again.
“Shoppers are budgeting their money and time,” says Paco Underhill, whose company, Envirosell, studies how consumers behave in stores. “They’re focused on being opportunistic bargain shopping vultures.”
At the Columbus Kmart, bargain hunters snapped up 99 cent Christmas socks.
“The whole bin was empty,” McCoy said. “People were trying to find deals.”
Going forward, shoppers are expecting even bigger discounts. According to America’s Research Group research firm, 34 percent of shoppers say they want to see post-Christmas discounts of about 70 to 80 percent, up from 20 percent last year.
The Midnight Buyer
Bargain shoppers used to wake up at the crack of dawn to take advantage of big discounts on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This year, some shoppers instead stayed up late on Thanksgiving night to get deals.
This behavior was in large part due to retailers’ efforts to outdo each other during the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. Stores like Macy’s, Best Buy and Target for the first time opened at midnight on Thanksgiving night, offering deals that once were reserved for the next day.
At the West Point Walmart, which usually closes at 11 p.m., the store did not to close at all on the night of Black Friday, store Manager Vickie Black said.
Twenty-four percent of Black Friday shoppers were at stores at midnight, according to a poll by the National Retail Federation, the industry’s biggest trade group. That’s up from 9.5 percent the year before when only a few stores were open during that time.
Of those shopping at midnight on Black Friday, 37 percent were ages 18 to 34. That percentage was higher than among 35- to 54-year-olds, of whom 23.5 percent were in stores by midnight.
The Returner
Shoppers who were lured into stores by bargains gleefully loaded up on everything from discounted tablet computers to clothing early in the holiday season. But soon after, many of them were rushing back to return the items they bought.
For every dollar stores take in this holiday season, it’s expected they will have to give back 9.9 cents in returns, up from 9.8 last year, according to a survey of 110 retailers conducted by NRF. It would be the highest return rate since the recession. In better economic times, it’s about 7 cents.
Stores have themselves to blame for the higher returns. They lured shoppers in with deals of up to 60 percent off as early as October. Because of the deals, shoppers spent more than they normally would. And retailers’ return policies have been more lax since 2008, with some sweetening their policies even more this year.
McCoy said he didn’t have hard figures on how many Columbus Kmart shoppers experienced buyer’s remorse and returned their goodies, but a large number returned unwanted items the day after Christmas.
“We had trash cans full,” McCoy said. “A lot of gifts, people already had.”
It was a little different at Goody’s in Starkville, a fact that Somby attributes to Monday’s heavy rains.
“There were a fair amount of returns but not necessarily an outrageous amount,” he said. “(Monday) was a little slow. We thought we would have more.”
The ‘Me’ Shopper
One for you; one for me.
After scrimping on themselves during the recession, Americans turned to shopping for themselves. It’s a trend that started last year but became more prevalent this season.
The Starkville Goody’s saw a lot of that this year.
“There were a lot of gifts, but at the same time, there were people who saved a lot of money and said, ‘I might as well get me something,'” Somby said.
Black noticed it this year at the West Point Walmart as well.
“People were shopping for themselves, in line waiting to get the merchandise,” she said.
According to the NRF, spending for nongift items will increase by 16 percent this holiday season to $130.43 per person. That’s the highest number recorded since it started tracking it in 2004.
The Good Samaritans
A new trend this year was that of the “layaway angels,” who played Secret Santa by anonymously paying off the balance of Kmart customers’ layaway accounts.
According to CBS New York, layaway accounts totaling more than $420,000 have been paid by these harbingers of good will.
McCoy said in Columbus, at least four or five people showed up to pay random accounts.
Among those people were members of the Columbus Fire Department.
“They had a little extra money and wanted to help the kids for Christmas,” McCoy said.
Usually, firefighters from the five stations gather money and have a big Christmas meal, but they raised more than $2,340 on a gun giveaway, and the staff decided instead of keeping the money for themselves, they wanted to help the less fortunate.
Each station chose something different to do, with some paying off layaway balances at Kmart, some buying customers’ groceries at Food Giant and others picking shoppers out of the crowd at Walmart to pay for their purchases.
“Everybody agreed, ‘That’s a great idea, let’s do that,” said Station 1 Capt. Tommy Massey. “There’s people out there less fortunate with the economy the way it is and people losing their jobs and with these plants closing and stuff.”
Massey said a lot of heartwarming stories emerged, and he expects it to become an annual tradition.
“There was one lady at Walmart, and they paid off her groceries,” he said. “She was putting some stuff back because she couldn’t afford it all. Her mom had just had a stroke and she was in the hospital. They went over there and paid her stuff off, and they had a good crying session. Everybody was crying.”
That’s the true meaning of Christmas, helping others,” Massey said. “It ain’t about the receiving, it’s about the giving.”
Anne D’Innocenzio reported from New York. Christina Rexrode in Raleigh, N.C. and Dispatch Staff Writer Carmen K. Sisson contributed to this report.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.