November 28, 2008 10:20 pm
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By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com
Although it’s too early to offer sales projections, local retailers are calling the start to the holiday shopping season Friday a success.
Casey Beckley, manager of the Target store in Joplin, said by 9 a.m., the store had already done 3,300 transactions.
“We have more guests than last year, but they are buying a little less,” Beckley said Friday afternoon. “But overall, with the economy the way it is, I’d say we’re doing well.”
The economy was looking up by the time the stock market closed early Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average locked in gains of 9.7 percent for the week and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 12 percent.
The Nasdaq, which had moderate losses in recent sessions, still gained 10.9 percent for the week. It was the first time the Dow rose for five consecutive sessions since July 2007.
The items that helped retailers climb out of the shopping slump this year were electronics and toys, Beckley said.
“I’d say 100 percent of those people, that’s what they were buying,” she said.
While local Toys “R” Us store officials wouldn’t comment to the Globe, Bob Friedland, public relations manager for Toys “R” Us corporate offices, said it was the integration of technology into toys that kept the toy retailer full of customers on Black Friday across the country.
“There’s a whole category of toys out there” with integrated life-like technology, Friedland said.
The company’s biggest sellers Friday included Elmo Live, Bakugan card game sets and Hasbro’s FurReal My Lovin’ Pup Biscuit.
The trend confirms an early Friday statement from the National Retail Federation (NRF) on preliminary Black Friday sales. Electronics, toys and apparel were the most popular items across the country, according to the release that specified flat screen televisions, GPS systems, digital frames, digital cameras, cashmere sweaters, video game systems and Blu-Ray players were the first items cleaned off of store shelves Friday morning.
Friedland said he couldn’t comment on the Toys “R” Us’ national sales numbers for Black Friday, but said it looks like customers are still willing to shop if they can find a good deal this year.
“Our customers are definitely out there shopping,” Friedland said Friday.
Although the NRF is projecting a holiday sales growth of 2.2 percent this year for an estimated gross of $470.4 billion, Wall Street investors still expect retailers will suffer this holiday shopping season as nervous consumers grow more restrained in their spending this year.
But some retail stocks rose Friday as investors hoped the predictions have been overly gloomy. Macy’s Inc. added 5.6 percent, though some discounters, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., slipped.
‘Tragic situation’
At a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream on Long Island, “out-of-control” Black Friday shoppers broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. A store employee died and a pregnant woman was sent to the hospital.
The Associated Press reported that about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors when the impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors.
“This crowd was out of control,” said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as “utter chaos.”
Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store closed for several hours before reopening.
Police said criminal charges were possible in the case, but Fleming said it would be difficult to identify individual shoppers.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bottom line
The National Retail Federation will release the results of its Black Friday survey at 3 p.m. Sunday on its Web site www.nrf.com/press/.
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