Black Friday gets early, crowded start
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Patty Tascarella, Kim Lyons and Jennifer Curry
Black Friday, retail's biggest sales day, got another early start in many Western Pennsylvania shopping centers, and mall managers are anticipating higher tallies for this year's holiday season.
Prime Outlets at Grove City recorded 6,000 vehicles by 2 a.m., two hours after its midnight opening. It was the second such early opening for Prime Outlets, but this year, the massive shopping complex located about an hour north of Pittsburgh was far better prepared to handle the onslaught of shoppers, said Senior General Manager Carmen DeRose.
"Last year, we were caught with our pants down because we weren't sure what was going to happen," DeRose said.
But Prime Outlets learned from its 2006 experience.
"We actually were more organized and had a strong plan that fell into place with the help of the state police and PennDOT, so getting people to and from the parking areas was a smooth transaction," DeRose said. "The people in the stores had good game plans, with more staff and more products."
DeRose said Prime Outlets' 4,000-spot parking lot and its 1,500-spot annex had been completely filled twice and were still at 70 percent capacity around 8:30 a.m.
Traffic may be a bit lighter this year, DeRose said, but early indications are that shoppers are spending more.
"Last year, there was more window shopping," he said. "This year, I'm seeing a lot of stores saying sales figures are up."
DeRose noted long lines at high-end retailers like Coach and at stores with "big name recognition," including Banana Republic, J Crew, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap and Old Navy. By the time the outlet mall closes at 10 p.m., the vehicle count could well top last year's recorded 20,000, DeRose said. The typical full turnout for a Saturday, the outlets' busiest day, is 12,000. The 2006 count was likely low, DeRose believes, because it did not figure in people parking in restaurant lots and along back roads.
At the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills northeast of Pittsburgh, shoppers started lining up at 4:30 a.m. outside the GameStop store in order to snag a limited number of available Nintendo Wii's.
By the time the store opened at 7 a.m., between 75 and 100 people were waiting in line for the popular video game device, according to Karie Boyer, marketing director at the mall.
Overall, with the parking lot 80 percent full by 9:30 a.m., the mall's traffic was up compared to last year, Boyer said. Across the street, the parking lot at Wal-Mart was full, and Best Buy "had a line the whole way wrapped around the building," Boyer said.
Megan Frenz, marketing manager at South Hills Village mall, said parking lots were 75 percent to 80 percent full at 9 a.m. Friday. Two of the mall's anchor retailers, Sears and Boscov's, opened at 5 a.m.
"Compared to last year, it seems like there's been a slight increase in traffic," Frenz said.
She had not yet surveyed the mall's retailers, but said there was a steady flow of customers "in great spirits."
At The Mall at Robinson, west of Pittsburgh, Marketing Director Shema Krinsky said shoppers had lined up around 3:30 a.m. for JCPenney's early opening at 4 a.m.
"It's been pretty steady since then," Krinsky said.
Most of the retailers at Robinson are already reporting sales figures above last year's, she said.
"We're hoping to work through the gloom and doom of all the forecasters," Krinsky said. "So far, things are looking up."
Parking lots at Robinson were around 85 percent full at 9 a.m. Friday, Krinsky said.
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