Weather keeps Black Friday shoppers local

Jennifer Ditlevson Haglund
Several Maryville retailers, including the JC Penney store on South Main Street in Maryville, opened their doors Thanksgiving afternoon as well as on Black Friday in hopes of attracting shoppers with a wide selection of holiday sale merchandise. However, bad weather over the long weekend reportedly cut down on the volume of customer traffic, at least to an extent.

Black Friday used to make the news with reports of frantic holiday shoppers punching each other out for Tickle Me Elmos and Furby toy robots.

But this year’s traditional holiday shopping opener appeared to moderate somewhat, at least in Maryville, due to an icy burst of winter weather.

Economics played a role in a less-crowded Black Friday as well.

With more retailers beginning holiday sales as early as Veterans Day, and with the continued shift toward online shopping, fewer customers apparently felt the need to hit the stores in the early hours of what has long been the biggest retail day of the year.

Last year, the National Retail Federation reported that over the four-day holiday weekend retail sales decreased by 11 percent. The end of Cyber Monday today will reveal whether or not the decline has continued in 2015.

According to Maryville Sears owner Ryan Gessert, this trend is fueling a nationwide push that could eventually turn Thanksgiving back into what it used to be, a holiday.

“Everybody wants to be closed on Thanksgiving,” Gessert said.

Comparing 2015 to years past, Gessert said store hours have changed. For several years, he worked 8 p.m. to midnight on Thanksgiving then reopened at 4 a.m. for Black Friday, rarely going home between shifts.

Gessert said he preferred this year’s hours, which ran from 6 to 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving with a 7 a.m. opening the following day.

Barnes and Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Cabela’s, and Half Price Books are among several major retailers that didn’t take part in the traditional shopping frenzy. Outdoors outfitter REI not only closed both Thursday and Friday but paid employees for the days off.

Closed doors, however, aren’t necessarily translating to lower profits as more customers choose to shop by computer.

In Maryville, plunging temperatures and freezing drizzle also kept some shoppers off the highway, but it also kept them in town.

Gessert said he thought Sears’ sales may have been hindered by the weather somewhat, but he estimated that weekend sales were up 35 percent overall.

Serena Mitchell said she and her friends usually travel to St. Joseph for Black Friday sales at The Shops at North Village, but that this year slick roads kept them local.

At JC Penney late Thursday, Mitchell browsed through racks of clothes but said she wasn’t too concerned about finding particular items.

“I feel happy when I get deals, but it’s good to spread the spending throughout the season,” she said.

At the Maryville Wal-Mart, door-busters for electronics drew a crowd between 6 and 8 p.m. Thursday, but it was quiet and steady afterward. Mitchell said she went to Wal-Mart before shopping at JC Penney and thought it was slower than last year.

For Carlene Pierson of Parnell, the trip to Wal-Mart had less to do with shopping and more to do with finding a dry, warm place to walk off a big turkey dinner.

“We just wanted to get out of the house,” Pierson said.

Mikeala McCoy, also of Parnell, said she was bored by the end of the day at home and wanted to see if she could find any gifts for family members. She and Pierson both said they usually go to St. Joseph to shop.

Pierson said she planned to go out with friends Saturday in hopes that the weather would improve, and that there would still be items left on sale.

Hannah Goff of Burlington Junction walked the aisles at Wal-Mart with her son Steve, who is only a month and a half old. Goff said she saw some advertisements at her in-laws’ house after dinner and thought the day provided be a good opportunity to get a few things for her child.