More shoppers than expected took advantage of sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the after-Thanksgiving shopping days that are leading indicators of holiday sales – reported the National Retail Federation.
Nationally, there was a 4.8-percent increase – higher than the predicted 4.0-percent increase and in line with 10-year averages. And Rhode Island shoppers appeared to follow national trends, said Paul DeRoche, executive director of the Rhode Island Retail Federation.
“It’s safe to say that it was a terrific, solid weekend,” DeRoche said, though he could not provide statistics for Rhode Island shoppers.
As with past years, Black Friday shoppers were predominantly out early. Nationally, 48.8 percent of shoppers were in stores by 8 a.m., a slight drop from 50.0 percent during 2006. But this year marked an earlier start than previous years, with midnight openings at many malls. By 4 a.m., there were about 9,433,064 shoppers – 14.3 percent of the day’s totals – in stores.
Many shoppers are still holding off – the biggest days for Rhode Island will likely come in two weeks, DeRoche said.
“We’re still projecting that a lot of people will be delaying some of their purchases and the week before Christmas will be the highlight of the whole season,” DeRoche said.
The National Retail Federation also runs cybermonday.com, a Web site linked to many of the country’s largest retailers. That, DeRoche said, was a huge success on Monday, November 26, which has been dubbed “Cyber Monday” for the amount of online shopping done.
“The retail federation said that 72 million consumers will shop online this year,” he said, adding that three times more people shopped on Cyber Monday this year than during 2006.
In Rhode Island, smaller, independent retailers probably didn’t draw mall-level crowds on Black Friday, said Brie Cartier, store manager of Wayland Square’s Runcible Spoon.
“For us it was definitely steadily busy, it wasn’t anything outrageous,” she said. “Usually, I think, a lot of people tend to head toward the mall on Black Friday. But we did have a very good day for our small business.”
This year, though, smaller retail associations are increasing efforts to lure shoppers farther from the mall. Some, including Wayland Square, are joining Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau’s (PWCVB) “Providence for the Holidays” campaign, a joint-advertising effort debuting this year.
“Really, the neighborhood retailers got together and used the platform that we created to do some comprehensive marketing together, which I think is really smart,” said PWCVB Vice President of Marketing and Communications Kristen Adamo. “This is a great way to draw them into the more local mom-and-pop stores.”
While retailers had a better-than-estimated weekend, another local group tried to separate itself.
For the past 11 years, Greg Gerritt and Phil Edmonds have taken Black Friday, a day where most Americans head to the mall, and tried to make it into something else – a day for reflection and giving, Gerritt said.
On the lawn of the State House, just feet away from the Providence Place Mall, Gerritt and more than 60 volunteers collected coats as part of Buy Nothing Day in Rhode Island. They collected about 2,000 – up from 200 when the event started in 1996.
Buy Nothing Day in Providence aims to do more than quash consumerism. It is a day to stimulate community awareness and action, Gerritt said.
“In addition to pointing out the illnesses visited upon a society by consumerism – ecological collapse, greater inequality – we also wanted to do something that really made a difference for people in the community,” Gerritt said. •
