Black Friday and the month-long shopping season that follows isn’t just the best time to buy presents on sale. It’s also when some retailers learn whether their stores will survive. When others find out if they’ve made money for the year or lost it. And when consumer spending, which accounts for 75 percent of Georgia’s gross domestic product, will provide a barometer of the economy’s direction.
Over the next several weeks, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will report periodically about four local retailers: how they intend to attract cautious consumers, their strategies for what to sell, which products they order more of, and which ones languish. The retailers sell toys, electronics, books and shoes. They have from one to eight stores, with locations from Forsyth to Fayette counties. They have different business expectations, as some see shoppers cutting back and others see increased demand. With economists predicting a modest increase in holiday sales this year, we give you a behind-the-counter view of metro Atlanta’s shopping season.
PeachMac
Apple dealer Darryl Peck isn’t too worried about sales this holiday season.
“I think it will be about the same” as last year, Peck said. “Last year was incredible, and that will be fine.”
The iPad isn’t new anymore, but it is still selling well for PeachMac, a chain of Apple specialists with eight Georgia stores, three of which opened this year. Apple computers are also moving quickly. Peck expects Apple TV boxes to do the same.
Weeks before Black Friday, Peck wasn’t sure if a shortage of hard drive components would affect his business, or the availability of iMac computers. Monday, he said it won’t be a problem, though prices for external hard drives are up 50 percent. Peck still has 800 desktops held in reserve by a distributor, enough to get him through the season.
Normally, Peck orders items the week he needs them. They can arrive in the store the next day. Having so many computers on reserve is unusual for the store, but Peck said he is managing inventory carefully and it is “critically important” to have what a customer is looking for.
Black Friday doesn’t account for a large percentage of PeachMac’s holiday sales, but it is a good indication of how the rest of the season will go for the growing four-year-old chain.
Abbadabba’s
There’s no question that Toms, the company that made its name giving a pair of shoes away for each one customers buy, is the star at local shoe seller Abbadabba’s.
“As soon as we get those in, they fly off the shelves,” said Kristen Smith, Abbadabba’s chief financial officer.
November sales of the shoes were up 150 percent through Sunday, Smith said. New styles move quickly, she said.
Ugg boots and Vibram FiveFingers — shoes that wrap around toes individually, much like a glove — are also big sellers in 2011, and Smith expects the trend to continue through December.
It isn’t until two weeks before Christmas that holiday sales really pick up at Abbadabba’s, but president Janice Abernethy said the five-store chain isn’t dependent on the season to survive. December is the busiest month, but December sales are not double those of any other month.
As Black Friday looms, Abbadabba’s is already having a sale that will continue into the weekend to clear shelves for newer styles coming in. Smith expects people to buy for themselves as well as others this season.
“People like the experience of opening a shoe box and pulling out a shoe,” she said.
But it’s the week after Christmas, when people make exchanges, that is busiest for the chain.
FoxTale Book Shoppe
Given the past year, Ellen Ward said, FoxTale Book Shoppe is in a very good position.
The business is solvent, and if the owners aren’t making a lot of money, at least they are comfortable.
Sales at the five-year-old Woodstock bookstore are down 7 percent; last year, they were up 18 percent.
Ward hopes to make up the difference in Christmas sales. November and December supply as much as a quarter of annual revenue.
Many customers have cut back, Ward said, but she sees increased interest in supporting local retail. Ward said FoxTale will have sales to encourage shoppers to buy multiple books, and is bringing in the authors of some books the store is featuring.
The store even has a theme for the holiday season, The Magic Begins Here. A magician will be doing tricks on Small Business Saturday, and the store will offer complimentary mimosas and apple cider.
Ward said she sometimes over- or under-estimates how many copies of a title she will need. But in the book industry, unlike others, unsold inventory can be returned to the publisher.
“I’m not taking much of a chance on these,” Ward said of the titles she is stocking.
FoxTale is also selling T-shirts, journals and jewelry, which have higher margins than books. She said her partners frequently change the look of the store to keep it fresh.
“The whole key to running a bookstore is turning inventory,” she said. “You don’t want to let books sit on the shelves for years.”
Picayune Toys
Becky Goblish hates to think about closing her nine-year-old toy store in Dunwoody. But if this holiday season is not strong, she may have to. “I’m taking it one month at a time,” she said.
Goblish projected a $30,000 sales increase for 2011, to $390,000 for the year. But as the costs of products and shipping rise, and the amount people spend on toys falls, Picayune Toys is down 17 percent from the plan. Goblish said it has never been this bad.
Grandparents who would spend $150 per grandchild now spend $50, she said. Big-ticket items, like wagons and tricycles, have essentially stopped selling. Two $140 pianos that Goblish bought last year remain unsold.
Goblish is stocking up on less-expensive craft kits and games, hoping those will move faster and keep money flowing.
“We’re much more realistic than we used to be,” she said.
Goblish acknowledges that customers can likely save money at big-box stores. But she hopes her willingness to demonstrate toys and gift-wrap packages will convince them to keep shopping at Picayune.
The last three months of the year make up 40 percent of her sales, Goblish said. She has high hopes for the volume on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, dubbed Small Business Saturday. But Black Friday isn’t a day of big sales for her.
“We’re not cutting anything to the bone,” she said.
