Courtney talked about going shopping on Black Friday last week and she wasn’t alone. A record 247 million Americans shopped in stores and online this past weekend and on average, spent more money than last year.
The Social Media Team here at The Pert Group share their shopping stories from the past weekend.
Allison Polanis
I’ve shopped on Black Friday before. I remember going as a child with my mom to snatch up a cookware set that my mom still uses today. But with stores opening earlier and earlier and crowds getting crazier and crazier, I’ve decided that shopping on Thursday night and Friday morning just isn’t worth it. I did check the ads to make sure there wasn’t something I couldn’t live without, but decided that I valued my sanity and sleep more. I did go to Target later on Friday to pick up an extra set of Christmas lights and other random items; the store was probably a little busier than a normal Friday afternoon, but not by much. I also went shopping at a local outlet mall on Saturday and found plenty of good deals – the most common deal was that everything in stores was anywhere from 30-60% off. The mall wasn’t overly crowded for a Saturday morning to boot. I guess it also helps that I was nearly all done with my major holiday shopping prior to Thanksgiving!
Cheri Tabel
I actually tried to take advantage of Black Friday deals online Thursday night, but Target’s website was not working and ended up not making a purchase. On Friday, I went to the Jayhawk Bookstore (Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!) and they had a great deal – 25% off any purchase all day. I was only 1 of 3 people there. I did go to Old Navy to return items (the only person returning on Black Friday, I’m sure!) and they were super busy, but had a great system in place to deal with traffic and keep customers moving through the checkout line. The crowd, though, was enough to send me home to do more online shopping!
Kristin Fontoura
My husband and I opted to stay at home and shop online. It was successful and stress free. We felt like the promotions that were offered online were just as good as the ones in the stores (at least on the items we were looking for) and they included free shipping. There was however one item that was on Amazon’s lightning deals that we did not get. We set our alarm clock for 5 minutes before the lightning was supposed to strike, and when it did – we clicked, but the item was already gone and we were the 500th person on the waiting list. It was a little bit frustrating, but I guess we’ll just have to work on clicking faster next time.
Courtney Marinak
I was one of the people out on Friday morning. I started my shopping trip at 6 a.m. and was done by 9 a.m. The best “deals” I got weren’t necessarily from sales alone, but from combining those sales with my coupons. I noticed that some stores seemed overstaffed for the number of shoppers. Don’t get me wrong – the stores were busy, but many of the employees still didn’t have anything to do. The craziest thing I saw while shopping was a grown woman out shopping in footie pajamas!
How did your company prepare for Black Friday? When did you open your doors? What kind of deals did you offer? Are you considering changing your strategy for next year? The Pert Group can help with market research to determine what your customers will value in order to make one of the busiest shopping weekends a success.
