If you take away weekends and vacation days, I report on traffic 231 mornings a year. Two hundred and thirty of those mornings are pretty similar. I give the interstate conditions. Report on crashes and stalls. Update trip times. Inform commuters of big backups on surface streets.
That’s the modus operandi 230 mornings a year. The lone exception, the one outlier, the one day that isn’t like any other, is this Friday. Black Friday. Yes, the Friday after Thanksgiving is the most unique day of my work year.
Instead of reporting trip times from the northern suburbs, instead of reporting on interstate delays, I will be reporting on parking lot capacities of various shopping complexes around the metro area.
When you turn on Channel 2 Action News Friday morning, the “traffic ticker” that scrolls at the bottom of your television screen will be providing different information than you are used to seeing. You won’t see trip times; you will see mall parking lots listed with what percent they are at capacity.
Captain Herb Emory, the Dean of Atlanta traffic reporters, has been flying high above Black Friday traffic for more than two decades. He knows firsthand how different traffic coverage is that morning.
“We just fly from mall to mall to mall for the most part, “ said Captain Herb. “Most of the malls are located near the freeway, so we can keep an eye on them too.”
Captain Herb and I have been covering Black Friday traffic long enough that much like “normal” rush hours, we have figured out some patterns.
“Usually the first big hot spot we see is at the Bass Pro Shops,” Captain Herb said. “Most of the big box stores fill-up first. The Best Buys, the hh greggs, the Walmarts, the Targets and of course Toys R Us.”
It’s not uncommon to see those parking lots near capacity before 6 a.m. The big malls fill up more slowly, but by 7 a.m. certain malls can be up to 90 or 95 percent full in the main parking lots.
My advice to shoppers that want to get an early jump on the Black Friday deals is when you get to the malls or big box stores, park close to the exits away from the main entrance. The short brisk walk to the front of the store will invigorate you for your shopping experience, and when you are ready to leave, it is a quick exit out of the parking lot.
Captain Herb offers a different nugget of wisdom for potential Black Friday shoppers.
“Teleshop. Shop online. That’s the best advice I can give.”
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