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Black Friday off to a fair start
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November 27, 2009 @ 3:30 PM - Black Friday began in many parts of the metro area early today. Shoppers lined up as early as late Thursday to jump their holiday shopping with traditional retail sales. The long lines of customers were reported outside shopping complexes and that was welcomed news to retails who are struggling again this year.
Retailers like Kohl’s and J.C. Penny’s reported that business was brisk as early as 5:00 AM. The long lines did not seem to bother the veteran bargain hunters on the hunt for the best buy they could receive. Even as the day worn on, the brisk shopping continued and as the morning turned into the afternoon. Most retailers were seemly busier than normal around the metro. Everything points to a successful kick off the Christmas Shopping Season.
Officially, no one can say how Black Friday did. Some reports by Bloomberg suggest that the sales leading up to Black Friday were down as much as 3.5%, even though foot traffic was up 4.3% from last year. Therefore, it is hard for many retailers to predict without the sales figures to see if this trend is broken.
The bigger question is, if there is a positive gain can retailers expect this to continue? With uncertainty in the marketplace today, it is hard to say. Retailers are walking a fine line with consumers. If they make large discounts to attract customers, they will destroy their retail sales figures for the rest of the year. If they do not, they loose the customer to another retailer and still end up having a poor season; therefore, it is a mad dash by retailers to fine the correct formula is critical to retailers.
There are also several bright spots in the metro area as signs of the metro area continuing good signs of economic activity. Several shopping centers show signs of construction of new retail stores. The Bass Pro complex in Independence is adding new shops as well as the Summit Fair in Lee Summit, MO. Construction are always a good sign for a community.
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