There's Cyber Monday, Super Saturday; Wal-Mart Even Seeks 48-Hour Day
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
For two hours, Steve Brown stood in line outside of the Best Buy in Gaithersburg with a single objective: to score the 46-inch Samsung flat-panel TV at a blockbuster $700 discount.
He was not alone. Roughly 300 people crowded outside Best Buy's doors as an icy wind whipped through the crowd -- a common sight on the day after Thanksgiving, when stores stage massive sales to get shoppers revved up for the holidays. But this was nearly two weeks before Thanksgiving, and the frenzy had already begun.
"I'm not a crowd person," said Brown, who lives in Reston and ended up with three TVs and a Wii gaming system. "But the savings on the TVs were enough to drive me out here."
Once heralded as the symbolic kickoff to the holiday shopping season, Black Friday is sacred no more. Retailers this year began touting door-buster discounts weeks before anyone thought about roasting a turkey. And the deals will continue long after the leftovers are eaten, with online retailers and even infomercials touting events to prolong the hype.
Concern that shoppers will rein in their spending this season is driving many of these promotions, several industry experts said. The National Retail Federation forecast that retail sales in November and December would grow 4 percent -- the smallest gain since 2002 and below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent. A survey by Discover Financial Services released this week showed that 55 percent of consumers said they would spend less on holiday shopping this year.
The less money shoppers have to spend, the more aggressive the competition becomes for their business.
"Retailers are getting a little anxious, and they're trying to encourage consumers to spend whatever disposable income they have with them instead of their competitors," said Bonnie Carlson, interim president of the Promotion Marketing Association, a trade group. "Tougher times require tougher measures."
Wal-Mart has led the way, slashing prices as early as October in such key categories as toys, home and apparel. Then on Nov. 2, it unveiled five more door-buster deals to mark the opening of its in-store Christmas shops. This week, it announced that hot items would be discounted on its Web site on Thanksgiving day -- including a Garmin Global Positioning System cut back 30 percent, to $298.87 -- and that additional secret specials would be available in stores Saturday and Sunday.
Oh yeah, Black Friday is expected to be pretty busy, too.
"We know that a lot of people are impacted, certainly with economic pressures," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "We're spreading it out also just for convenience."
Best Buy held exclusive shopping events for members of its loyalty program, Reward Zone, at about 70 stores on Nov. 11, nearly two weeks before Black Friday. In addition to the discounted television, the company touted a $600 laptop and printer package, and savings on a high-end digital camera and lens. The Gaithersburg store also received 150 hard-to-find Nintendo Wii gaming systems for the event.
Gaithersburg residents Karl Bejo, 27, and his wife waited in line for about half an hour to get inside, where he picked up a wireless router and ink for his printer and debated whether to splurge on a 50-inch, high-definition TV for his new home. Bejo said his wife coached him on preparing for Black Friday -- long lines, limited product, big sales -- because they expected a large crowd.
"I said, 'Wow, do you need to do that?' " he recalled. "She said, 'Yeah, but it's a great deal.' "
Black Friday got its nickname because it marked the beginning of the season when retailers traditionally begin making money, or went from being in the red to the black. A strong Black Friday can cement a store's reputation in shoppers' minds and strike fear into the competition.
But it seems that one day of no-holds-barred shopping is no longer enough. Online retailers have claimed the Monday after Thanksgiving as Cyber Monday and are planning incentives such as free shipping to boost customer traffic. According to a poll sponsored by trade organization Shop.org, nearly three-quarters of online retailers said they have scheduled promotions for the day, up from less than half last year.
"As more people rely on the Internet for holiday shopping, retailers have stepped up their game to compete," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org.
Even infomercials are jumping on the holiday bandwagon with Info-Mania Sunday two days after Thanksgiving. Barbara Tulipane, president of the Electronic Retailing Association, a trade group for direct retail sales, said the number of infomercials jumps substantially after Thanksgiving. She said they are targeted at viewers who may have gone through the Black Friday blitz and are relaxing at home in front of the TV.
Because it expects Saturday to be so similar to Black Friday, Wal-Mart has requested that the two days be merged into one, creating a 48-hour Friday. The company even sent a letter to honorary Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge in England, to request his blessing.
"Does a week always have to contain seven days? And do those days always have to be the seven we're accustomed to?" wrote Nick Agrawal, vice president of Wal-Mart's corporate communications. "Certainly here in the U.S., those seeking more time for their holiday shopping, the addition of a second Friday might be just what they're looking for."
However, Wal-Mart is petitioning the wrong person. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France is the world's official time-keeping organization. Its U.S. branch is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which falls under the Department of Commerce.
Reached by phone in his office in Cambridge, Rees was at a loss for words on Wal-Mart's double-Friday request.
"I am completely flummoxed over this conversation," he said.
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