In era of online retail, Black Friday still lures a crowd

NEW YORK — It would have been easy to turn on their computers at home over plates of leftover turkey and take advantage of the Black Friday deals most retailers now offer online.

But across the country, thousands of shoppers flocked to stores on Thanksgiving or woke up before dawn the next day to take part in this most famous ritual of American consumerism.

Shoppers spent their holiday lined up outside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, by 4 p.m. Thursday, and the crowd had swelled to 3,000 people by the time doors opened at 5 a.m. Friday morning. In Ohio, a group of women was so determined, they booked a hotel room Thursday night to be closer to the stores. In New York City, one woman went straight from a dance club to a department store in the middle of the night.

Many shoppers said Black Friday is as much about the spectacle as it is about doorbuster deals.

Kati Anderson said she stopped at Cumberland Mall in Atlanta Friday morning for discounted clothes as well as "the people watching." Her friend, Katie Nasworthy, said she went to the mall instead of shopping online because she likes to see the Christmas decorations.

"It doesn't really feel like Christmas until now," said Kim Bryant, shopping in suburban Denver with her daughter and her daughter's friend, who had lined up at 5:40 a.m., then sprinted inside when the doors opened at 6 a.m.

Brick-and-mortar stores have worked hard to prove they can counter the competition from online behemoth Amazon. From Macy's to Target and Walmart, retailers are blending their online and store shopping experience with new tools like digital maps on smart phones and more options for shoppers to buy online and pick up at stores. And customers, frustrated with long checkout lines, can check out at Walmart and other stores with a salesperson in store aisles.

Consumers nearly doubled their online orders that they picked up at stores from Wednesday to Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending.

Priscilla Page, 28, punched her order number into a kiosk near the entrance of a Walmart in Louisville, Kentucky. She found a good deal online for a gift for her boyfriend, then arrived at the store to retrieve it.

"I've never Black Friday-shopped before," she said, as employees delivered her bag minutes later. "I'm not the most patient person ever. Crowds, lines, waiting, it's not really my thing. This was a lot easier."

The holiday shopping season presents a big test for a U.S. economy, whose overall growth so far this year has relied on a burst of consumer spending. Americans upped their spending during the first half of 2018 at the strongest pace in four years, yet retail sales gains have tapered off recently. The sales totals over the next month will be a good indicator as to whether consumers simply paused to catch their breath or feel less optimistic about the economy in 2019.

The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, is expecting holiday retail sales to increase as much as 4.8 percent over 2017 for a total of $720.89 billion. The sales growth marks a slowdown from last year's 5.3 percent, but remains healthy.

The retail economy is also tilting steeply toward online shopping. Over the past 12 months, purchases at non-store retailers such as Amazon have jumped 12.1 percent as sales at traditional department stores have slumped 0.3 percent. Adobe Analytics reported Thursday that Thanksgiving reached a record $3.7 billion in online retail sales, up 28 percent from the same year ago period. For Black Friday, online spending was on track to hit more than $6.4 billion, according to Adobe.

Target reported that shoppers bought big ticket items like TVs, iPads, and Apple Watches. Among the most popular toy deals were Lego, L.O.L. Surprise from MGA Entertainment and Mattel's Barbie. It said gamers picked up video game consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

Others reported stumbling onto more obscure savings. At a Cincinnati mall, Bethany Carrington scored a $29 all-in-one trimmer for her husband's nose hair needs and, for $17, "the biggest Mr. Potato Head I've ever seen."

Black Friday itself has morphed from a single day when people got up early to score doorbusters into a whole month of deals. Plenty of major stores including Macy's, Walmart and Target started their deals on Thanksgiving evening. But some families are sticking by their Black Friday traditions.

"We boycotted Thursday shopping; that's the day for family. But the experience on Friday is just for fun," said Michelle Wise, shopping at Park Meadows Mall in Denver with her daughters, 16-year-old Ashleigh and 14-year-old Avery.

By mid-day Friday, there had not been widespread reports of the deal-inspired chaos that has become central to Black Friday lore — fist fights over discounted televisions or stampedes toward coveted sale items.

Two men at an Alabama mall got into a fight, and one of the men opened fire, shooting the other man and a 12-year-old bystander, both of whom were taken to the hospital with injuries. Police shot and killed the gunman. Authorities have not said whether the incident was related to Black Friday shopping or if it stemmed from an unrelated dispute.

Candice Clark arrived at the Walmart in Louisville with her 19-year-old daughter Desiree Douthitt, looked around and remarked at how calm it all seemed. They have long been devotees of Black Friday deals and for years braved the crowds and chaos. Clark's son, about 10 years ago, got hit in the head with a griddle as shoppers wrestled over it. They saw one woman flash a Taser and threaten to use it on anyone who came between her and her desired fondue pot.

They've watched over the years as the traditional madness of the day has dissipated as shopping transitioned to online and stores stretched their sales from a one-day sprint to a days-long marathon.

"It seems pretty normal in here," said Roy Heller, as he arrived at the Louisville Walmart, a little leery of Black Friday shopping, but pleasantly surprised to find that he didn't even have to stand in line.

He had tried to buy his son a toy robot on Amazon, but it was sold out. Friday morning, he frantically searched the internet and found one single robot left, at a Walmart 25 miles from his home. He bought it online and arrived an hour later to pick it up.

Employees delivered his bag, he held it up and declared: "I got the last one in Louisville!"

____

Galofaro is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Ryan Tarinelli in Dallas, Katie Foody in Denver, Angie Wang in Cincinnati, Amy Taxin from Costa Mesa, California also contributed to this report.

source: philstar.com

Calm comes to Ferguson on Thanksgiving

FERGUSON, Mo. -- A peaceful Ferguson came together Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving and recover from violent protests that erupted when a police officer was not charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager.

Armed National Guard troops and humvees with US flags hoisted on their antennae at the shopping mall and boarded-up stores were the only outward sign of the turbulence of recent days.

There were no protesters or police on the streets of the St Louis suburb, which reeled from Monday's decision by a Missouri grand jury not to charge a white policeman who shot dead 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9.

Residents kept out of the cold, spending the holiday with friends and family, attending church services and beautifying boarded-up stores.

"I believe God enough to know we will rebuild," said Reverend Carlton Lee, the pastor at Flood Christian Church, which was burnt beyond repair during the violence on Monday.

He spoke at a service at the nearby Wellspring Church, saying he had received death threats and was devastated to watch the building go up in flames.

But life would carry on, Lee said.

Sunday service will be held in a heated tent in the parking lot and the church, where Brown's father reportedly worshipped, set up an online appeal for $50,000 to rebuild. So far, it has attracted $2,000.

Free turkey and pumpkin pie

Wellspring offered a free traditional Thanksgiving lunch of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie to members of the community and a diverse group of Christians from nearby parishes who came to express support.

"We do this every year but right now with the Ferguson unrest, it just brings the community together," said volunteer server Rhonda Johnson.

"The important thing is for people who have been to Ferguson, and who have shopped in Ferguson, and who have been part of Ferguson, to keep doing that," said fellow volunteer and local journalist Alvin Reid.

Anger over the grand jury verdict and Brown's killing is still palpable, and protesters have all vowed to continue demonstrating until justice is served.

"I don't know what's going to happen, I really don't. I think time heals all wounds but how much time it's going to take, I don't know," said Reid.

Many say they can never accept the grand jury decision that Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown in lawful self-defense after an altercation. In total, 12 shots were fired.

Wellspring pastor Willis Johnson said the community still felt great disappointment and mistrust, but was quietly optimistic that healing would come.

"We thought more than anything that people needed to come out and come together," Johnson told AFP as diners tucked into lunch. "It was imperative."

His church has provided medical respite, counseling and help to members of the community traumatized by the decision and the unrest.

'People were helped'
"Monday was very, very hectic at times for the staff -- very frightening because of the large crowds and the activity outside," Johnson said.

"We saw the movement of the masses past our church, we heard the gunshots," he said. For a period, he could not get into the area because of a lockdown.

"It was a very stressful time but a lot of people were helped," he said.

Down the road, families and children painted cheery scenes on the boarded-up windows of a row of shops before going home for Thanksgiving dinner.

"UNLESS someone LIKE YOU cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better," they painted next to a festive scene on a dental practice.

On a Chinese restaurant, children were painting a dragon.

"Seeing all this plywood was making us feel pretty down about it and putting the paint on there is just going to do something better," said Lou Bailey, 37, a project manager for a large company.

He said a home-school group of 10 families had swapped lessons for community work in recent days, sweeping away broken glass and beautifying shop fronts.

"Maybe ... here in the community we can rebuild relationships and create lasting friendships, which in turn is going to change a lot in the long run," he said.

source: interaksyon.com

US shoppers welcome early start to 'Black Friday'

NEW YORK/BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota - Retailers declared their experiment with earlier store openings to kick off the holiday shopping season a success on Friday, with those new hours expected to be a Thanksgiving night staple for more retailers next year.

Stores such as Target Corp opened hours before midnight on Thursday to try to capture a bigger piece of the retail pie. The move seemed to bring out a different type of shopper than the usual one who grabs the "Black Friday" deals, analysts said.

That meant by Friday morning, some shoppers, like Christian Alcantara, 18, at a J.C. Penney Co Inc store in Queens, New York, had already made a lot of their purchases. J.C. Penney stuck to a more traditional 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Friday opening.

"They should open earlier. I've been everywhere else and I've already shopped," he said.

Shoppers like Alcantara are likely to force holdouts like J.C. Penney to move their post-Thanksgiving sales into Thursday night next year, said Liz Ebert, retail lead at consulting firm KPMG LLP.

"There will be pressure on them. There'll be an expansion of it next year," Ebert said.

Hard data on "Black Friday" store traffic will not come in until this weekend. But analysts said retailers who opened early brought in a non-traditional Black Friday shopper, with more families coming in together and buying more than just the "doorbuster" sale items.

"I've never seen parents bring so many kids on Black Friday," Toys R Us Chief Executive Jerry Storch said.

The National Retail Federation expects sales during November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year, below last year's 5.6 percent increase. That made store operators' strategy important as they battled each other, rather than seeing a growing pie in a season when U.S. retailers can make a third of their annual sales and 40 to 50 percent of their profits.

"Retailers want them to buy now, they want to get that share of wallet early," said Michael Appel, a director at consulting firm AlixPartners. He noticed that the Galleria Mall in White Plains, New York, was busy from midnight to 3 a.m., but that traffic, while still brisk, was less heavy by midmorning.

Shoppers used smartphones and tablets and a lot of research as they hit stores, a mobile phenomenon that started last year and seemed to be more prevalent this year.

Thom Blischok, chief retail strategist and a senior executive adviser with Booz & Company's Retail practice, was waiting on line with one woman in Phoenix, who was shopping for a refrigerator. Using her mobile device, she found the appliance online for the same price and left the store without. She intended to buy it online instead.

"There's a fundamental transformation of shopping," he said.

Mobile devices account for 45 percent walmart.com traffic and online traffic coming from Walmart's mobile app was three times bigger than last year, Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com, said.

Overall, online sales were up 20 percent versus the same period last year, through 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Friday, IBM said.

The National Retail Federation said 147 million people would shop Friday through Sunday, when deals are at their most eye-catching - down from 152 million the same weekend last year.

The NRF estimate did not account for Thursday shoppers and anecdotal evidence suggested retailers opening earlier may have cut into traffic on "Black Friday", the traditional start of the holiday season that denotes the point when retailers in the past would turn a profit for the year.

"People seemed to be shopping quite a bit, although in talking to mall management, it seemed that traffic was not as busy as last year," Deloitte retail analyst Ramesh Swamy said.

Retailers were also using technology better, allowing sales staff to match prices customers found online and having them use tablets as mobile "checkout stands" so buyers did not have to wait in line, a service consumers were quickly coming to expect.

"I even heard customers complaining about a retailer that didn't have mobile checkout," he said.

Saving up for Christmas spree

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, two-thirds of shoppers were planning to spend the same amount of money as last year or were unsure about plans, while 21 percent intended to spend less, and 11 percent planned to spend more.

"I definitely have more money this year," said Amy Balser, 26, at the head of the line outside the Best Buy store in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. "I definitely don't think (the economy) has bounced back anywhere near as much as it needs to, but I see some improvement," she said.

For others, Christmas is the focal point of their annual shopping.

"We cut back spending on birthdays and anniversaries so we'd have more for Christmas. We've adapted," said Cheri Albus, 58, of Papillion, Nebraska, after shopping at J.C. Penney at Westroads Mall in Omaha.

Retail stocks rose in holiday-shortened trading on Friday, in line with gains across the market. Among the leaders, Wal-Mart ended up 1.9 percent and Macy's Inc rose 1.8 percent.

Starting early

Across the country, store lines were long - in the hundreds or more in many places - with the move toward earlier opening hours appearing to help. By sunrise on Friday, it was commonplace, even at large stores in the major cities, to find many more staffers than shoppers.

While the shift to earlier openings was criticized by store employees and traditionalists because it pulled people away from families on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, many shoppers welcomed the chance to shop before midnight or in the early morning hours.

Some workers used the day to send a message.

OUR Walmart - a coalition of current and former Wal-Mart staff seeking better wages, benefits and working conditions - targeted Black Friday for action across the country after staging protests outside stores for months.

Nine protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges after blocking a street outside a Walmart near Los Angeles, police said. Three of those arrested were Walmart workers, OUR Walmart said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc's U.S. discount stores, which have been open on Thanksgiving since 1988, offered some Black Friday deals at 8 p.m. on Thursday and special deals on certain electronics, such as Apple Inc iPads, at 10 p.m.

At the Macy's store in Herald Square in Manhattan, the line at the Estee Lauder counter was four deep shortly after its midnight opening. The cosmetics department's "morning specials" included free high-definition headphones with any fragrance purchase of $75 or more, and a set of six eye shadows for $10.

But for some people, cheap wasn't cheap enough - like the Macy's shopper who bought Calvin Klein shoes at 50 percent off but was still not satisfied.

"I was hoping for deeper discounts," said Melissa Glascow, 35, of Brooklyn, New York.

That could actually be an intentional strategy to help retailers' profits.

"It appears that manufacturers and retailers are making concerted efforts to drive margins, which may take some of the sales sizzle out of a traditionally big selling day/period, but should be positive to gross margins," Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said in a note to clients.

Lines at Best Buy stores were similar to last year but the traffic to its website was "significantly" higher, Shawn Score, head of the company's U.S. retail business, told Reuters.

source: interaksyon.com

Obama 'pardons' 2 turkeys

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama "pardoned" two turkeys Wednesday ahead of the annual Thanksgiving holiday, when Americans dine on millions of the fattened fowl.

"They say that life is all about second chances," Obama told reporters gathered at the White House Rose Garden for the yearly ceremony. "This November I could not agree more."

The symbolic reprieve means the lucky birds -- Cobbler and understudy Gobbler -- won't end up on the dinner table but will instead live out their days in a custom-made enclosure on George Washington's estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia, the White House said.

Both are 19 weeks old and weigh about 40 pounds (18 kilos).

Their names were chosen from submissions by elementary schools and, for the first time this year, the US public was able to pick which of the two would become the "2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey" by casting a vote on the White House Facebook page.

"The American people have spoken and these birds are moving forward," said Obama, just back from a tour of Asia, in a nod both to the social media poll and his 2012 re-election campaign slogan.

In a further reference to his recent White House win on November 6, Obama joked that Nate Silver of the New York Times -- who in astounding detail had correctly predicted his victory against Republican rival Mitt Romney -- had also foretold which turkeys would be pardoned.

"I joke but for the first time in our history, the winners of the White House turkey pardon were chosen through a highly competitive online vote," he said.

"And once again, Nate Silver completely nailed it. This guy's amazing. He predicted that these guys would win."

The annual tradition dates back to former president John F. Kennedy.

While daughters Sasha and Malia looked on, Obama performed the pardon in an almost pontifical manner with a sign of the cross.

While Sasha gave Cobbler a quick pet on the back feathers, Malia shook her head and refused.

Thanksgiving was first celebrated by pilgrims who fled religious persecution in England. For many Americans, it has become a family-oriented day marked with an enormous meal that centers around roast turkey, an assortment of side dishes and a slice or two of pie.

Wednesday's pardon takes place amid criticism from animal rights group PETA, which urged Obama not to maintain the tradition.

"It makes light of the mass slaughter of some 46 million gentle, intelligent birds and portrays the United States' president as being in some sort of business partnership with the turkey-killing industry," it said in a letter.

"Turkeys do not need to be 'pardoned.' They are not guilty of anything other than being born into a world of prejudice."

Shortly before the turkey pardoning ceremony, PETA demonstrators dressed as turkeys staged a protest outside the White House holding signs that read "Gobble veggies, not turkeys" and "Pardon all the turkeys."

As in years past since 2009, the president and his family will do some community service on Wednesday afternoon before celebrating the holiday on Thursday.

source: interaksyon.com

A Pinoy Thanksgiving feast at SM City North EDSA

MANILA, Philippines - Thank God, it’s Thanksgiving Day! In the US, where this cherished tradition began as far back as the 1800s, families gather around the table on a nippy fourth Thursday of November to share a heartwarming Thanksgiving dinner and to give thanks for the countless blessings from above. Inarguably the star of the Thanksgiving table is the iconic turkey.

In the Philippines, Thanksgiving Day takes on a new flavor. And SM City North EDSA makes the day even more special for Filipino families with its assorted food offerings that delight the heart and the belly. Taking center stage in this truly Pinoy Thanksgiving feast is our very own lechon that adds color — and bite — to the celebration.

Happy Thanksgiving Day! Happy eating!

source: philstar.com

Lox and Cream Cheese for Thanksgiving

During the summer, in the Catskills resort community where I grew up during the ’50s, getting great Jewish food was not a problem. The hotels on our side of the mountains in Fleischmanns, N.Y., were dying, but there were still enough city people that it was not hard to find smoked fish and salamis and decent rye bread.







In the off-season, it was a different story. The small community of year-round Jews, to which my family belonged, had to return to the mother ship, New York City, for supplies. We went to Houston Street on the Lower East Side, the neighborhood where my father was born.

Visiting what we called the appetizing stores was not the main reason for these trips. You came in to visit family or go shopping in the morning, see a show in the afternoon. My view of the city was shaped by my mother’s pronouncements of the indisputable facts, which she considered to be whatever came out of her mouth.

“You know how you tell a New York woman,” she’d say, before leaping out of the car at 34th Street to make for Ohrbach’s, a store famous for knocking off Paris fashions and offering them for a fraction of the price, a tactic she much admired. “When the wind is blowing and a New York woman has the choice between holding down her skirt and holding on to her hat, she holds on to her hat.”

Then she was out of the car, for the three or four hours when she could be one.

At age 8 I was too young for the rigors of Ohrbach’s. I went with my father on the food run, a special time for me as my father had no particular interest in kids. The first stop was Katz’s, on East Houston, where he had a pastrami on rye and I had a turkey sandwich and we both had a Dr. Brown’s, cream for him, black cherry for me. Then we went shopping, getting salami at Katz’s, where the slogan, “Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army,” delighted me. Then, proceeding along Houston, to a pickle shop the name of which I cannot remember, and to Yonah Shimmel’s for knishes. Sometimes to Russ & Daughters, which had vats of creamed herring and rows of small white fish with gold crinkled skin and fat yellow dried apricots dipped in chocolate and was very fine.

My father was not a happy man. The death of his father when he was 19 forced him to quit college and take over a sagging Catskills boarding house and dairy farm. It had taken happiness out of him, if it was ever in him. But he was happy when he was buying food on the Lower East Side. I understand it now better than I did then: It was the happiness of a working man when he can afford to go into a fancy food store and buy not the basics, but the luxury items, for his family.

I never doubted the common wisdom that the oldest child feels most responsible, because I saw it in my family. First at the boarding house my father and his younger brothers ran with their mother, then, when I was about 10, at the building supply company they started. My father was the worrier, the planner; his younger brother Artie was the muscle, delighted when the opportunity arose to throw an annoying customer out; their youngest brother Hymie, the patient and sensitive one, was the detail man.

Now the three brothers are all gone and I am the oldest and my three younger cousins, Hymie’s children, have taken over the business.

We have our own food tradition. It happens at least twice a year, when I drive my car to the country in the fall to be put into storage or in the spring when I pick it up.

The tradition has varied a bit over the years as the Jon Vie Bakery in the Village, which had the best rugulah, went out, and as Murray’s Bagels, the bagel store I prefer, came in. But the touchstone is Russ & Daughters, on the same strip on East Houston I went to with my father. My order doesn’t change much: two pounds of nova; a large whitefish or two, boned; a pound of chopped liver; two big containers of creamed herring; cream cheese with chives; cream cheese without chives; a half pound of traditional belly lox, which is so salty you’re thirsty all day, but is the way my cousins and I remember lox so we like it. Two boxes of rugulah, traditional and chocolate. Sometimes some beautiful dried fruit dipped in chocolate.


I get to the family business around noon on Saturday, just after they close and my cousins are waiting for the laggard delivery trucks to come in. My cousin Steven wipes off his desk and covers it with paper towels and my cousin Lisa gets the tomatoes and onions from the pantry in the back office and slices them and I unpack the food. My cousin Jason and Lisa and I sit at the partners’ desk our fathers used to share; which was ruined in a flood and my cousins had refinished at absurd expense. There is a lot of comment on the food. When Steven says this particular whitefish is excellent, really excellent, and puts away a third of it, I am as happy as if I had made it.


We sit around and tell family stories, some of which only I, as the oldest, remember, some of which we know only second hand:

The racehorse the three brothers bought, which looked to be a winner, till it bolted the fence at the county fair in Delhi. The time Steven, age 16, on his first delivery run, was driving a five-ton truck down McKinley Hollow Road and the brakes failed and our Uncle Artie, seated beside him, reached over and slowly pulled the emergency brake, cool as you please. A farm dog named Ike. A hired man named Mike. The time Hymie paid a quarter for a box at an auction and opened it to find a litter of puppies. The time – this was before any of us were born – Artie, on a bet, slung a calf over his shoulders and was carrying it up the steep hill to the barn when our grandmother saw him and hollered in Yiddish, “Artie, put down the cow!”

I always have difficulty, during these lunches, getting my mind around the fact that my little cousins, whom I used to baby-sit, run a business that employs 18 people and are buying cement trucks; that our fathers and uncles are gone and we are the grown-ups.

“I still can’t get use to them not being here,” I say. “It feels like they’re still here.”

“We say that all the time,” Jason says. “We expect any minute they’ll come walking through the door and say, ‘O.K., you did a pretty good job, but we’ll be taking over now.’ ”

We eat whitefish and bagels and lox until we could explode and then we pack it up. The cousins divide the food, taking some home, leaving some at the business for lunch. I go back to the city, knowing they will be eating it and enjoying it for the next few days and I feel pretty good. Like my father felt, I suppose.

source: nytimes.com