Eric Proulx is confident that this year’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping weekend is going to be bigger and badder than previous years.
He’s so confident, in fact, that the manager of the Tanger Outlets in Tilton said the shopping center will be opening at 6 p.m. tonight, as it did the year before. The center won’t close until 10 p.m. on Black Friday, meaning shoppers will be able to shop some of the holiday shopping season’s best deals for 31 hours straight before the weekend hits.
It’s quite a change from six years ago, when Proulx said the outlets opened at a mere 12 a.m. on Black Friday for a “Midnight Madness” event. And although stores have the option of not being open, Proulx doesn’t anticipate many will sit out the opportunity to make an extra holiday buck, despite the push from some retailers to skip Thanksgiving Day sales, insisting the day should be spent with family.
“I think it’s a culmination of things, such as deeper discounts that people want right away,” he said. “When they participate in early hours they get the first choice on the size and color of the item they want.”
Proulx noted several stores also offer incentives beyond the discounts to get people out, such as free gifts. He did not feel there was a backlash against shopping on Thanksgiving; rather, he said it has become a tradition for some people.
“It’s the uniqueness factor,” he said. “In general fashion, stores aren’t usually open that late, so it’s fun to gather up a bunch of friends and shop all day and night.”
But many shoppers on the street didn’t necessarily seem interested in taking advantage of those deals. In fact, they seemed adverse to shopping on the holiday or the day after at all, citing the perceived stress of having to compete with crowds hungry for a deal and the desire to spend time with family.
“I just don’t want to add to the congestion,” said Gayle Dasaro of Concord. “I work a part-time job, so I have extra time to shop. I’ll leave the craziness of the big stores and crowds to people with 40-plus hour jobs.” Dasaro said she will instead be curled up on the couch with her family.
Ryan Vachon of Concord said she went out once on Black Friday when she was younger, and did not enjoy it. “People are unpleasant,” she said. “They push and shove, and are just generally inconsiderate on that day. It’s not worth it.” Instead, Vachon will be spending the holiday weekend in Randolph, Vt., close to the woods and far from the stores.
For Lori Chartier and her daughter Vika, of Concord, Thanksgiving is a time for family, and they have a tradition of putting up and decorating their Christmas tree on Black Friday. Both noted that missing out of Black Friday doesn’t mean you can’t get a good deal.
“It’s not just one day anymore,” Lori Chartier said. “A lot of times you can get deals days before or online. It’s not like you’ll miss out.”
Even if there were incredible deals, it wouldn’t be enough to convince George Chapman of Concord to brave the crowds, simply because he does not enjoy shopping.
“When I need something, I go out and buy it,” Chapman said, who was shopping for a birthday present for his wife.
Stores opening their doors on Thanksgiving started in earnest in 2011 and took a punch out of sales on Black Friday, which had usually launched the shopping season. Many places like Macy’s, Target and J.C. Penney have been opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving as they try to out do others to get first dibs on customers who could easily buy online. But the move has been controversial, as many workers have voiced complaints that stores are putting profits over workers’ time to be with their families.
According to the National Retail Federation, about 41 percent of people shopped in stores on Black Friday 2015, just a hair below the 42 percent who shopped online. The majority of people (73 percent) planned to shop on Black Friday, followed by 48 percent of people who planned to shop the following day. Only 22 percent of those surveyed planned to shop on Thanksgiving.
NRF predicts sales in November and December are expected to increase this year by 3.6 percent, excluding the auto, gas and restaurant industries. While that percentage might not seem like much, it’s significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent for that time period, and it’s above the seven-year average of 3.4 percent since recovery from the recession began in 2009.
And spending isn’t really going down either: NRF anticipates shoppers will be spending an average of $935.58 during the holiday season, which includes spending on themselves, gifts for others, food, flowers and decorations for the holiday season. That’s the second-highest amount of spending seen since 2004; last year, shoppers went all-out, spending $952.58 on average.
Nancy Kyle, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Retailers Association, said she expects the state will do even better than the national average because it does not have a sales tax: based on what retailers have told her, she anticipates a 3.7 to 3.8 percent increase in sales during November and December.
“I know that retailers are very optimistic for Christmas this year,” she said. “I think there was a lot of pent-up demand that’s being exercised, because people have already started shopping.”
Kyle said part of that “pent-up demand” was due to the election season, which she felt had people stalling on shopping. “People were waiting to see what was going to happen with the markets and the election in general,” she said. “There was a lot of uproar, and now that’s done, people are getting settled down.”
Kyle also anticipated people would have more disposable money to spend this season, thanks to lower gas prices this year and a warmer winter. She also dismissed the idea that being open on Thanksgiving takes people away from their families, saying retailers do not force employees to work the holiday.
“They ask for volunteers,” she said. “A major retailer told me they have a waiting list of people who want to work. I think there’s this perception that Thanksgiving is a day to spend time with family at home, but some people don’t have that – sometimes the people they work with are their families.”
Christine Hojnacki, spokeswoman for Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. said being open on Thanksgiving is about giving customers the ability to choose when they shop. Bon-Ton stores will be open at 5 p.m. today, and Hojnacki said the stores had lines out the door when they opened at 5 p.m. last year and 6 p.m. in 2014.
Plenty of retailers, particularly high-end stores like Nordstrom or those like T.J. Maxx that offer discounts every day, never opened on Thanksgiving and have collected goodwill because of that.
“Similar to years past, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post stores will be closed on Thanksgiving and are scheduled to open on Friday morning, November 25th,” said Erika Tower, a spokeswoman for TJX companies. “We consider ourselves an associate-friendly company and we are pleased to give Associates the time to enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends. On Friday, November 25th, most of our T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post stores are scheduled to open at 7 a.m.”
Tower said she did not have a definite answer for how long TJX companies have been closed on Thanksgiving, but estimated they have given their employees the holiday off for “decades.”
Other big retailers who will not be open today include Bed Bath & Beyond and Barnes & Noble.
The Steeplegate Mall in Concord will also not be open today, but many of its anchor stores, such as The Bon Ton, Macy’s and JCPenney will be. Mason Asset Management did not respond to phone calls by press time.
If shopping on Turkey Day sounds good to you, here’s some of the big local stores which will be open:
Walmart is traditionally open all day on Thanksgiving, and this year’s no exception; however, in-store Black Friday deals won’t kick in until 6 p.m.
Best Buy opens at 5 p.m. on today and closes at 1 a.m. before re-opening at 8 a.m. on Black Friday.
Target opens at 6 p.m. today, and the fun won’t stop until 10 p.m. on Black Friday.
Many stores are offering online deals all day today.