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Published November 22, 2007 10:06 pm - As the alarm clock buzzes 4 a.m., Lisa Perry, of Miami, Okla., wipes the sleep out of her eyes and has one thing on her mind: shopping. Black Friday, Cyber Monday beckon holiday shoppers By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com As the alarm clock buzzes 4 a.m., Lisa Perry, of Miami, Okla., wipes the sleep out of her eyes and has one thing on her mind: shopping. Perry has been participating in the tradition of shopping the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, for years. She said it’s a combination of the early-bird sales and the event-like atmosphere that keeps her coming back. “I just like to be out there with everyone,” Perry said. “I’m that person that’s outside Best Buy at 5 a.m. It’s kind of like a sleepover.” Cyber Monday While retailers tempted buyers like Perry out of bed as early as midnight Thursday, some people are sleeping in and will be logging onto their computers later this weekend with the potential for deals. The National Retail Federation is predicting that as many as 132 million Americans will brave stores this weekend, while 70 million will stay in their pajamas and shop from the convenience of their computers. Lori Jones, Northpark Mall marketing director, expects 250,000 people to come through the Joplin mall’s doors today. Scott Krugman, spokesman for the federation, said analysts several years ago noticed a spike in online shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving. The day is called Cyber Monday, a term coined in 2005 by Shop.org, an online retailers industry group. The day is considered the online equivalent of Black Friday and the unofficial kickoff of the online shopping season. Krugman said retailers are drawing customers online in an attempt to get more dollars out of hesitant buyers, not to replace the traditional after-Thanksgiving mall rush. “This is all about multidimensional shopping and creating a seamless retail experience,” he said. “People will shop the malls on Friday, then log in at work Monday to continue their holiday shopping.” According to Shop.org and Shopzilla’s “eHoliday Mood Study,” 63.4 percent of retailers saw substantial growth on Cyber Monday last year, and 32.6 percent said their Cyber Monday sales were up more than 30 percent from those of the previous year. To help persuade shoppers to stay inside this holiday weekend, the majority of online retailers will offer special promotions, and as many as one-fourth of those retailers will offer free shipping on all purchases, according to this year’s “eHoliday Survey” conducted by BizRate Research. Laura Thompson, of Joplin, said she does a significant portion of her shopping online and through catalogs, and that stores would have to be giving items away for her to brave the long lines on Black Friday. “I just don’t think there’s a good enough deal out there to get me up at 4 a.m. and have me wait in checkout lines for an hour and a half,” she said. 
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