Post-Thanksgiving shopping is a ritual for Elk Grove's Krys Slattery, Chris Duncker and Gina Wirth -- a decade-long tradition among friends.
Each year, they finish Thanksgiving dinner with their families and then embark upon a 12-hour pilgrimage to knock-out the bulk of the Christmas shopping by visiting several stores in and around Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. They power-up with coffee and breakfast at Panera and then wind-down the spree at Olive Garden for lunch.
"We're constantly laughing," said Duncker. "It's not just about the deals for us really, It's all about the experience, we love it," added Wirth.
On Thanksgiving night they were in the Target on Higgins Road in Schaumburg. Each with carts, a list and Target's "door buster" circular holding folded in their hands. All three giggled and called out to each other, squealing with delight when they spied a good deal.
After picking-up some blue sequined slippers for her teenage daughter, Slattery held them up for Wirth and Duncker to inspect. "Do you think she'll like these?" she said.
This year Slattery was lucky. Target was opening earlier than ever -- at 9 p.m. so her mother cooked Thanksgiving dinner.
The trio weren't alone, the Target on Higgins Road in Schaumburg was swarmed, many pushing carts piled high with merchandise, from 50-inch televisions, to game consoles, tablet computers, MP3 players, apparel and cameras, which manager Brett Thiele said sold out in an hour.
Black Friday, which for years kicked-off the holiday shopping season for retailers and consumers, has bled into Thanksgiving, with retailers including Target, Sears and Toys R US opening on Thursday night aiming to boost their bottom lines by enticing consumers to shop early and often.
Holiday shopping is crucial for retailers -- it accounts for up to 40 percent of their yearly sales. That's why it's called "Black Friday" as for years they've used the day to go from red to black -- or turn a profit.
This year, retail watchers are expecting holiday shoppers to oblige. Consumers are expected to spend, on average, $586.1 billion this year on gifts for friends and family, just over a 4 percent increase from last year. Experts are saying this pick-up in spending is conservative, but a glimpse at popular hotspots for early Black Friday shopping, it wasn't apparent.
This year a handful opened earlier than ever, Walmart set an 8 p.m. opening and Sears followed suit. Target opted for an opening scheduled an hour later at 9 pm.
Despite some criticism around the increasingly early open times, shoppers in Schaumburg were out in full-force last night. A Deloitte survey found that 60 percent of consumers plan to shop over Thanksgiving weekend, aiming to take part in sales that offer merchandise at prices the dip below 50 percent off.
Experts said that this year, as in most years, low-priced flat screen televisions would move fast. So would deeply discounted Android-powered tablet computers.
The line to get into the Sears at Woodfield Mall stretched along the building by 7 p.m., an hour before opening time.
Manager April Buehler said the line outside the store looked larger than last year, and about a mile away at Target, Thiele said this year the store was filled with more families, instead of the hardcore, deal-hunter that typically shows up when the store opens early on Friday morning. "It's a lot more casual shopper, which I'm excited about," said Thiele. "It's not necessarily people that had to get up super early and be dedicated, just people going out with families. Grandparents and grandkids," he said.
Carol and Russel Freitas fall into the deal-hunter category. It's date night for the Palatine couple of 26 years when they head out to shop each year after dinner, leaving their two teenaged sons behind to tackle the stores. They said they love it.
They waited patiently in line for more than an hour, hoping to snag one of Sears' hot door busters, a 32-inch flat screen for less than $100.
As it turns out, they waited in vain. By the time the store opened, they were in the first third of the line, but the Sears employee had run out of TV vouchers when she got to the Freitas' in line. "It's okay," said Carol Freitas, "There's other stuff on our list, we're going to head to the boys' department to get shirts for my son."
Shortly before Sears opened, about 12 feet away from the Freitas, there was a small, but growing crowd of suspected "line jumpers," who stood about 12 feet away staring at the line.
At close to 9:30 at Target, some shoppers could be seen pushing carts stockpiled with 32 inch flat screen for $147. Alex Gackle from Fargo, N.D., left his grandmother's dinner with his dad and brother-in-law to buy another of the Minneapolis-based retailer's most sought-after deals: They bought four televisions. One for himself, another for his grandmother, one for her caretaker and the fourth for his father. They waited in line for more than an hour and things were calm, said Gackle. That changed when Target's doors opened, said Gackle. "That's when people started getting crazy and rushing toward things."
By 10:30 a long line of shoppers were still waiting to get inside the Toys R Us in Schaumburg. Customers said they were told that shoppers would be allowed in the store every 10 minutes in increments of 50.
After 10 p.m. the temperature had dropped and Laura Saul stood in a sweater with her two daughters and their cousin to get into Toys R Us. The item of the evening -- "Monster High" dolls for her 10-year-old daughter, Emily. She pointed to Emily and said, giggling, "She conned us to do this." Saul's old daughter, Lauren, who stood nearby, was not in such good spirits, "I could be sleeping," she said.
The trio from Elk Grove shopping at Target said over the years they've seen it all -- fights and shoving matches. As the 10 p.m. hour approached at Target, they thought things were pretty calm. At Target People get angry, but this is fun for us," said Wirth. "Even if we don't get what we want, we don't care.
crshropshire@tribune.com | Twitter: @corilyns
Black Friday shopping gets an early start in Chicago
This article
Black Friday shopping gets an early start in Chicago
can be opened in url
http://swellingnews.blogspot.com/2012/11/black-friday-shopping-gets-early-start.html
Black Friday shopping gets an early start in Chicago
