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THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com
Shoppers congregate outside Toys R Us in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday evening waiting for the doors to open at 9 p.m.
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Richelle Demace of Pittston pushes a shopping cart up and down the aisles with her son, Aidan, 3, inside Toys R Us in Wilkes-Barre.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 PAGE 9A
Black Friday shoppers breeze around the aisles of Toys R Us in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday evening, their shopping carts filled.
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year. In the past, the openings were staggered throughout the night with some opening at midnight, others at 2, then 3 then 4, 5 and even 6 a.m. This year the openings were primarily at midnight. Stores that chose this option included: Best Buy, Target, Kohl’s, HH Gregg, Bon-Ton, Macy’s, Old Navy and Game Stop. Some, like Toys R Us, opened at 9 p.m. Thursday – and had a line that wrapped around the building and seemed to never end. Other stores chose the traditional early Friday morning opening, including Sears, Boscov’s and JC To see additional Penney, which welphotos, visit comed customers www.times at 4 a.m., while othleader.com ers such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Kmart and Babies R Us opened an hour later. The National Retail Federation expects 152 million people to visit a store this weekend. That’s up10.1 percent from last year. A manager at the Target store in Wilkes-Barre Township said the crowd was on par with last year and the earlier opening didn’t prove to help or hurt volume. Though the line that formed behind her stretched on into the darkness, Naunczek said the crowd at Kohl’s wasn’t as great as previous years when the store opened at 4 a.m. And that was fine with her.
Olivemae Lewis of West Nanticoke waits in line outside Best Buy in the Arena Hub Plaza.
Rachael Healey of Nanticoke and her brother Billy Healey, 12, of Plains Township, keep the chill away by sitting in a tent outside Target in Wilkes-Barre Township Thursday, waiting to be the first Black Friday shoppers when the store opened its doors at midnight.
Katrina Kasarda wears a turkey hat as she works the checkout line at Toys R Us.
midnight or earlier openings, including some employees of the participating stores. Though some employees at local stores grumbled among themselves about the midnight opening, none would comment on the record. But Rick Melaragni, a Best Buy employee from Tampa, Fla., and Anthony Hardwick, a Target employee in Omaha, Neb., both started online campaigns urging retailIs earlier better? ers to allow employees to enjoy Not everyone was happy by the Thanksgiving with their families.
“I will be cutting my Thanksgiving short like many retail workers,” said Melaragni. “I will have to be in bed while most are preheating their ovens.” Jason O’Shea, of Nanticoke, was sympathetic of the employees but said he worked in retail for five years and he worked plenty of days he wished he was off. “It’s part of the gig,” he said after walking out of the Wilkes-Barre Toys R Us with some movies, games and toys for his son. “I’m sure many of them are thankful they have a job.”
more the occurrences,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm The NPD Group. A record number of shoppers are expected this weekend to take advantage of discounts of up to 70 percent. For three days starting on Black Friday, 152 million people are expected to shop, either online or in stores, an increase of about 10 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Thanksgiving weekend, particularly Black Friday, is huge for retailers. Over the past six years, Black Friday was the biggest sales day of the year, and it is expected to keep that
crown this year, though shoppers seem to be procrastinating more every year, and the fate of the holiday season is increasingly coming down to the last few days before Christmas. Last year, the Thanksgiving shopping weekend accounted for 12.1 percent of overall holiday sales, according to ShopperTrak, a research firm. Black Friday made up about half of that. ShopperTrak is expected to release sales data on Saturday on how Black Friday fared, but a better picture will emerge when major retailers report their November sales figures next Thursday.
PETE G. WILCOX PHOTOS/THE TIMES LEADER
just didn’t go to sleep. Naunczek’s shopping mate, Jessica Kiwak of Swoyersville, had never gone out for Black Friday so she had no benchmark for comparison. But she said that a 4 a.m. opening would have likely happened without her. “I probably would have gone to bed and if I had to get up, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” she Schedule adjustment said. Kelly Marbel, who was celebratShe adjusted her schedule so instead of going to sleep early and ing Thanksgiving with family in waking up at 1 a.m. to shop, she Blakeslee, was among the first in
line at the Best Buy, where she was one of the lucky10 to get a voucher for a flat screen television for $199. She was also able to head next door with her daughter Morgan to the Old Navy store, where they were the first in line a mere seven hours before the clothier opened. While she said she felt bad having to leave her family gathering to go wait in line, she said personally the midnight opening worked out better for her sleep schedule. “Now I can go home and go to bed,” Marbel said.
V I O L E N C E AT R E TA I L E R S
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Linda Kastreva, of Mountain Top, was among the first 200 in line at the Best Buy. Along with her son Leo and daughter Lindsey, they were able to grab one of the limited numbers of XBOX 360s on sale for $199. An avid Black Friday participant, Kastreva said the earlier opening worked out well for her this year because she was scheduled to work Friday.
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Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter said Black Friday was purse shortly after 1 a.m. Friday in • In Sacramento, police are insafe at most of its nearly 4,000 a parking lot across from a Walvestigating a stabbing outside a U.S., but there were “a few Mart store. The suspects ran away Continued from Page 1A Macy’s. The victim suffered a unfortunate incidents.” non-life threatening stab wound to with the victim’s purse. • In Milford, Conn., a police officer waited for the video game his midsection and was transThe incidents were attributused a stun gun on a Walmart ported to a local hospital. ed to two converging Black players to be unwrapped, a shopper who allegedly punched • In Kinston, N.C., a disturbance Friday trends: Crowds are woman fired pepper spray at another customer. Police said a involving Walmart shoppers getting bigger as stores open the other shoppers “in order to prompted security to arrest a man 26-year-old shopper hit another get an advantage,” police said. earlier and stay open later. At customer as they waited in line to and use pepper spray to calm the Ten people suffered cuts and the same time, cash-strapped buy video games late Thursday crowd. night. • In Fayetteville, N.C., shots were shoppers are competing for bruises in the chaos, and 10 • In Rome, N.Y., several fights fired outside a mall. One suspect others had minor injuries from deals on a small number of broke out in the electronics deran inside the mall, and a second the spray, authorities said. The gifts that everybody wants — followed him, firing more shots. No partment of a Walmart just minwoman got away in the confu- tablet computers, TVs and utes after midnight. Several shopone was reported injured. Shopgame consoles like Xbox, Ninsion, and it was not immedipers were pushed to the ground, pers left the mall and some smallately clear whether she got an tendo 3S and Wii. er stores closed in the wake of the according to Oneida County Sheriff’s Deputies. Two customers were Xbox. shooting. Police say they’re lookThat’s a shift from years transported to a hospital with ing for two suspects. past, when there was a wider On Friday morning, police • In San Leandro, Calif., a shooting minor injuries. One man was arrange of must-have items. said, two women were injured rested for disorderly conduct. occurred during an attempted “The more the people, the and a man was charged after a • In Kissimmee, Fla., two men got robbery in the parking lot of a fight broke out at an upstate Walmart. One shooting victim was into a verbal altercation at a WalNew York Walmart. A man mart store. When officers arrived in critical but stable condition to separate the men, the aggresafter being accosted by would-be was arrested in a scuffle at a sor resisted and swung at one of thieves. One of two suspects was jewelry counter at a Walmart detained by the victim’s family and the officers, police said. • In Cave in Kissimmee, Fla. Creek, Ariz., police evacuated a arrested. Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s Walmart and used a robotic device • At a San Fernando Valley, Calif. biggest retailer, has taken steps to remove a suspicious package Walmart, 20 people, including found in an employee break room. in recent years to control its children, were injured when a • In Buckeye, Ariz., witnesses said Black Friday crowds following woman used mace against other police slammed a grandfather to customers in what authorities the 2008 death of one of its the ground after he allegedly put a referred to as a "competitive workers in a stampede of shopgame in his waistband so that he shopping" incident. pers. This year, it staggered its • In Myrtle Beach, S.C., a 55-year- could lift his grandson out of the door-buster deals instead of crowd at a Walmart. old woman was shot in the foot after two men demanded her offering them all at once. -- The Associated Press