Despite some major retailers opening a day earlier on Thanksgiving, consumers still packed area stores, malls and shopping centers on “Black Friday,” the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season.
By noon, destination retail centers such as Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Arbor Place in Douglasville and Lenox Square in Buckhead were reporting full or near filled to capacity parking lots. Traffic to the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett was backed up a mile early in the afternoon.
Shoppers, not put off by the cooler-than-normal weather for North Georgia, filled stores looking for bargains and hoping to score the “door-buster specials” that retailers staggered throughout the day to keep consumers coming.
At the Best Buy store on Hammond Drive in Dunwoody, Sajda Nuriddin of Atlanta arrived Friday morning hoping to get either a 42-inch or 50-inch TV. After telling the salesperson she needed a moment to decide, she chose the smaller set.
She was too late.
“It just sold out,” Nuriddin said the salesperson told her, pointing to another customer.
Others were more successful. Thousands of metro Atlantans left retail outlets with baskets full of toys, electronics, clothes and other holiday gifts on Friday. At Lenox, parents lined up with their children to score a visit with Santa Claus.
Alley Mauldin of Athens was looking for a gift for her son at Target on Friday and got the last one in stock, an item she didn’t want to reveal because she feared her son would read about it in the newspaper. But there was a problem: She left her wallet — and credit card — at home.
“I called my husband who dictated the number over the phone,” Mauldin said.
Business was brisk in spite of what appears to have been a strong “Gray Thursday.” Many metro Atlantans pushed aside their Thanksgiving turkey to pack into Wal-mart, Macy’s, Toys R Us, Kohl’s and Kmart, all of which opened early to lure customers, despite potential backlash for operating on the holiday.
Target reported doing two times as much business online on Thursday compared to Thanksgiving 2012, and Wal-mart said the biggest items sold Thursday included big-screen TVs, the iPad mini, laptops, XBox One and PS4 game units and “Call of Duty: Ghosts” game.
Matthew Shay, president and chief executive officer of the National Retail Federation, said in a news release Friday that store leaders reported record-breaking business on Thanksgiving Day, both in-store as well as online. The NRF expects holiday sales to increase 3.9 percent this year to $602 billion.
Kasey Byrne, senior vice president at Atlanta-based Cardlytics, which helps retailers research what consumers want, said toys and clothes are big sellers for the holiday, but nothing brings out shoppers like TVs and anything associated with them.
“There is a reason you see electronics top the list of ‘Black Friday’ sales,” she said. “Retailers know customer buying habits.”
Most who ventured out for the holiday sales said they were pleasantly surprised by how easy the shopping seemed this year. Lines moved quickly and products were in bigger quantities than usual.
Leah Swindell of Conyers said she was excited about buying an iPad at Target and getting the store’s $100 gift card that accompanied it. “I live in this store so I know I’ll use it,” she said.
Some also were impressed by the generosity of others.
On Thanksgiving Day, Chris and Loni Anderson of Sandy Springs were standing in line at Wal-mart, hoping to get a 50-inch Emerson Element HDTV for $288. But they realized they did not have a wristband that entitled them to get one. As they discussed their disappointment, a consumer in front of them turned and asked, “Do you want one?”
“I thought he meant he was going to sell it (the TV) to us,” said Loni Anderson.
Instead, the Black Friday good Samaritan offered the couple one of his wristbands for free.
