Black Friday Traffic Steady at Retail; Consumers Look to be Buying into Deals

 

Regionally, the South led the gains with a 3.4% rise over 2007, closely followed by the Midwest, up 3.0%; the West, up 2.7%; and the Northeast, gaining 2.6%, ShopperTrak reported. Many stores took the occasion to open doors early with early including up to midnight itself. Door buster deals brought crowds in, but consensus reports held consumers seeking out their deals and little else. Unfortunately for the sporting goods industry, those deals were more likely to be in electronics or toys.

“Most people are going to Best Buy and Toy’s R US first,” said one sales associate at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Minneapolis, MN. The associate described traffic as “steady and constant, but never busy.”

For the first time ever, REI offered an across the store 20% off coupon to REI members on items bought before Dec. 1 on top of promotional sales.

REI was taking advantage of appetite for deals to recruit new members, which are the lifeblood of its business. Such across the store discounts are normally limited to it’s once a year anniversary sale. At the REI store in Pineville, NC, traffic was strong on the sales floor and was described by staff as steady, but lacking the peaks of a year earlier, when register lines got as deep as six to eight people.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Midwest Mountaineering hosted the 23rd annual Winter Outdoor Adventure Expo.   According to owner Rod Johnson, “Attendance was up 26% over 2007.  Sales were up 19%.  Buying patterns were the same and customers are spending the same amount on items.”

Johnson also reported that “September sales were up 30% and October sales were up 26%. The weather has been cooler. Weather has always been a much more significant factor than the economy for us. We are also placing more emphasis on training and rewarding increased sales and margin. We expect record sales this holiday season if the weather remains cooler than normal.”