Old school retailers stumble over holiday weekends

Matt Townsend, Leslie Patton, Kim Bhasin and Matthew Boyle, Bloomberg

published

9:38 AM PST, Saturday 24 November 2018

Black Friday is becoming more of an online shopping event, and this is not necessarily a good thing for traditional retailers, some of whom have been left behind during the annual spending spree. from America.

The chains have decades of expertise, filling the mountain shops with TVs and towels, while offering door packages to draw crowds. But e-commerce is not yet the industry's forte – despite heavy investments and a profusion of insignificant words on their journey. This has again been manifested this holiday weekend while retailers such as Lowe's Cos., Walmart Inc., Lululemon Athletic Inc. and Kohl's Corp.

"It really shows the importance of investing in logistics and technology," said Marshal Cohen, an analyst at NPD Group, a researcher. "They must be able to handle the race online."

Large US retailers experienced strong growth for most of the year, posting solid – if not outstanding – results that raised expectations and led to what is supposed to be one of the best holiday shopping seasons. of the past 15 years. But investors have become nervous over the last few weeks and retail shares have reduced their gains for the year because of long-standing concerns about their evolution.

They will have to understand it. Black Friday figures suggest that much of the growth took place online. According to Adobe Analytics, which monitors e-commerce, the $ 6.2 billion spent on Friday was 24% higher than a year ago.

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There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence that traffic in malls and stores was similar to last year, or even down in some places. More than 62% of JLL's east coast-managed shopping centers reported the same volume of pedestrian traffic this year as in 2017, although observers reported that traffic was picking up speed as the day progressed. was warming up.

"The story of this year is that healthier store traffic coupled with exceptional digital growth will lead to good results at many US retailers," said Oliver Chen, an analyst at Cowen & Co., who said he was particularly impressed by the pedestrian traffic. at Walmart and Kohl's.

Of course, a major drawback for this weekend is that retailers have spread their purchases by offering offers earlier in November, and Thanksgiving Day is now a great day of shopping in its own right. According to a Citigroup estimate, the Black Friday weekend would only represent 10% of retail sales in the fourth quarter.

"The frenzy of Black Friday because we knew it was over," said Cohen of the NDP, who visited stores in four US states to begin the holiday weekend. "We are watching the next edition of Black Friday, a more civilized and opportunistic edition."

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Many shopping malls have reported a crowd arriving late Friday. And buyers who showed up early were pleasantly surprised by the relative calm. Take Cornelia Baird: Home Health Aide completed her purchases in less than an hour at the Brooklyn Atlantic Terminal. This 38-year-old is the kind of customer that the retail sector is hoping for this holiday season. Normally, she does not venture on Black Friday, but could not resist the perfume offerings at Bath & Body Works at $ 4.95. She then hit Target and bought a five-piece luggage package for $ 48.

There were also more signs that a large portion of the 164 million Americans expected to shop this weekend buy for themselves. In Chicago, 35-year-old Tara James announced she had bought two Phone XS phone models – one for herself and one for her husband – as well as the $ 250 free gift card they were accompanying. Apart from that, not much else interested him.

"There was nothing for Black Friday that really appealed to me," said James, who also had clementines, deodorant and regular tights in his basket.

Of course, not all places looked like a day at the mall. Thousands of enthusiasts lined up at the entrance of Macy's flagship store in Herald Square in Manhattan, the largest store in the United States, at 5 pm. the day of Thanksgiving. The top two floors, which sold accessories, cosmetics and shoes, were crowded with customers who were struggling to cram into the few escalators. Macy's general manager, Jeff Gennette, was there to cheer the crowd in as they entered.

At Aurora Farms Premium Outlets in Aurora, Ohio, about 30 km southeast of Cleveland, lines were formed in front of Nike stores and the Kate Spade store.

At a Walmart store in northern New Jersey, customers were sipping free coffee and preparing their purchases before Black Friday offers began at 6pm. the day of Thanksgiving. The stores saw "a fairly constant flow of customers" throughout the evening, according to market manager Ashley Viveiros. The electronics and household items were the two most popular departments at the beginning, she said, after which buyers migrated to the toy department: "It's an event for a lot of people "she said.

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Pressure cookers have had a big year and, despite the decline in the number of cable subscribers, televisions are still one of the few elements that draw crowds on black friday. Buyers at the front of the queue in front of a Best Buy in downtown Brooklyn had all faced cold temperatures for one reason: a 55-inch Sharp 4K TV on sale for $ 249.99.

Chris Garcia, a 38-year-old 38-year-old father of 38 from Brooklyn, went to the store shortly after 4 am to open four hours later in the morning. hoping to win this deal for her two youngest children who had recently broken a set. Saving $ 200 was enough incentive for the city park employee to wait for the first time in a black Friday queue. He got so cold at one point that he bought an extra pair of socks in the old navy next door to try to stay warm.

"Usually you would pay $ 500 or $ 600 for a television like this – you can not let that go," Garcia said. It was not a Christmas present, but it might as well be it. Garcia told his family that he had to work early Friday, a trick so that he could surprise them. "I'm just going to go on TV and see what happens," Garcia said. "They will be happy."