Kellie Johnson, 54, and Kellie Schruhl, 73, from Piedmont had bought 14 gifts for friends and family by 10 a.m. visiting stores including Target, Cost Plus World Market, Bloomingdale’s and Kate Spade at Westfield Shopping Center in downtown San Francisco.
The two are post-Thanksgiving shopping veterans, with Johnson attending every Black Friday sale for the last 25 years. Both estimate they saved 60% to 65% off their purchases.
“This is what we do,” Johnson said, describing the outing as more a fun day with friends than a day for shopping. “It’s not really about the sales – we have fun, we hang out and it’s all about the experience.”
Schruhl noted that this year’s Black Friday was more subdued compared to years past. Last year, “hordes” of shoppers had already descended on the downtown shopping district by late morning.
“This is nothing,” she said. “But it’ll probably get crowded at 1 to 2 p.m.,” she said.
Intense competition and around-the-clock deals have changed the nature of Black Friday for brick-and-mortar retailers.
Debra Gunn Downing, executive director of marketing at South Coast Plaza, said the Black Friday crowds have shifted since stores started opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. She said the Black Friday rush might now be in the middle of the afternoon, rather than early morning.
“So many people, especially young people who may have more freedom to come and go, will head out and shop after dinner,” she said of Thanksgiving shopping. “That’s the new tradition.”
Pulling shoppers into the stores and onto their websites can be crucial for retailers, who haul in as much as 40% of their annual revenue during the holiday season. This year, the retail industry's anxiety has ratcheted up after retailers including Macy's and Nordstrom reported disappointing third-quarter results.
The National Retail Federation, a trade group, forecasts that sales during November and December will climb 3.7% to $630.5 billion, slightly below the 4.1% growth of last year. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, making retail sales a strong gauge of the nation's economic health.
Charlie O'Shea, lead retail analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said signs in the retail industry have been so mixed that it's impossible to predict how the holidays will shake out.
"It's really choppy," he said. "There are some pockets of weakness and some pockets of strength."
Kmart Corp. President Alasdair James said he expected a rush of customers from Thursday through Sunday.
“This weekend as a whole is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, weekend of the year,” James said.
Matt Smith, 27, was strolling the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica on Friday morning carrying two dress shirts discounted to $59.99 from a normal price of $79.99, and a pair of dress slacks for $69.99, down from $100.
Last year, he was cautious in his holiday spending, but said he will be spending more this year.
“I’m feeling pretty good about the economy,” he said. "I think we have finally reached a level of stability that we haven't had since the recession.”
Oscar Fuentes, 16, of Los Angeles wasn't feeling as upbeat. Out shopping with his family in Santa Monica, he said they all had less to spend this year. His dad is a gardener and landscaper, and during the worst drought the state has seen in decades there has been considerably less work.
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“My parents say we will be buying a lot less this year,” Fuentes said, “and there really don’t seem to be many deals.” Still, Fuentes found a once-$30 t-shirt atAbercrombie and Fitch, a store normally far above his price range, for $15.
“I had the money to buy one,” he said.
But it’s not just about shopping on Black Friday this year.
In Chicago, demonstrators marched Friday morning in the city’s busy shopping district on Michigan Avenue to protest the 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer.
This week, the city released a dash-cam video showing officer Jason Van Dyke repeatedly shooting McDonald. Van Dyke has been charged with murder.
Wal-Mart workers and their supporters also will be demonstrating Friday outside company stores in a dozen cities, including Los Angeles, to call for a $15 minimum wage and full-time schedules.
This is the fourth year of protests organized by Our Wal-Mart, a group of company employees calling for higher pay.
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On Thursday night, Thanksgiving shoppers seemed focused on getting the best deals — even more than they were last year, when about 60% bought door-buster bargains and left without picking anything else up, said Britt Beemer, founder of America's Research Group. That could spell trouble for retailers for the entire holiday season if shoppers are ignoring more profitable items for only the best deals, he said.
"There will be a lot of dollars on Thursday, but a lot of red ink" for retailers as well, he said.
Beemer said the consumers simply aren't impressed with half off anymore and may wait to spend this season until hefty discounts of 70% are on offer.
"If that's the case, retailers will have an impossible time setting the customer up to spend," he said.
At Best Buy in Los Angeles, about 150 people were in line waiting for the doors to open at 5 p.m. Thursday.
First in line was Anthony Reyna, 19, who had queued up at 2 a.m. Monday. He and seven friends had taken turns staking out their spots since then.
“I like to hang out and get deals,” said Reyna, who had $700 to drop on specials, including a 50-inch Toshiba television discounted to $150 from $430. Reyna, a cook from Highland Park, said he saved more money this year and was feeling comfortable about splurging.
Right behind Reyna were Pasadena City College students Alex Louie, 21, and Simon Kahwaji, 20. The pair also had taken shifts camping out with three other friends since Monday at 8 a.m.
“It’s the experience,” said Louie, who also works part time as a barista and as a girls volleyball coach. “You don't often get many experiences to bond with friends and go camping.”
Kahwaji, a kinesiology student, said he's feeling more confident with the economy and could perhaps spend as much as $600 this year.
“The deals get better and better every year,” the Pasadena resident said. “It makes you want to buy stuff.” Shopper surveys point to a general uplift in spending in the coming months — but on what, they do not agree.
Every year, shoppers crowd the Southland's many malls to hunt for deals on the day after Thanksgiving. Above, consumers at South Coast Plaza on Black Friday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Maricela Valencia, 25, was at Toys R Us on Thursday night to find a train set for her son, Jason, who is 4. The downtown Los Angeles resident said she feels more confident about her finances after picking up more classes as a fitness instructor this year.
In 2014, Valencia said, she spent about $400 on gifts. This year, she would consider splurging a bit more.
"I'm doing better financially and putting in more planning," she said.
Not far away, the Glendale Galleria was bustling with the kind of crowd usually seen on a weekend.
Gilbert Tena, 48, was sitting on a bench surrounded by three bulging J.C. Penney bags waiting for his wife. The painter said the couple had spent about $60 on clothing, half of the regular cost.
"My wife was trying to keep me home today," Tena joked. "She doesn't want to tell me how much she's spending."
Software developer Arin Mukherjee, shopping at Wal-Mart in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area Thursday, said the crowds were smaller this year there and at other stores, with no "snatching" of merchandise from competitive shoppers.
The 28-year-old Culver City resident got engaged this year and looks forward to being part of a dual-income household with his soon-to-be wife.
"I'm a little more confident now," he said. "The financial heat doesn't come up to your head."
One survey, conducted by Deloitte & Touche, found that shoppers anticipated spending $1,463 on average during the holiday season, up from about $1,300 a year earlier. Most of that uptick isn’t going toward buying gifts but into other categories, such as furniture and entertainment, the survey found.
Gallup, on the other hand, said consumers planned to sharply increase their spending on presents — laying out $830, up 15.3% from a year ago.
However the holiday season turns out, Black Friday will probably be the heaviest sales day for the retail industry, said Bill Martin, founder of research firm ShopperTrak.
E-commerce sites pushing big discounts were having a happy Thanksgiving, according to statistics from Adobe Systems. Online sales were headed for a record $1.7 billion, up 22% from last Thanksgiving, based on more than 100 million visits to more than 4,500 U.S. retail sites.
Toys were top sellers, led by "Star Wars" products. Also big were Samsung 4K TVs, SonyPlayStation 4, iPad Air 2, Xbox One and Beats by Dr. Dre, Adobe reported.
Kmart in Chula Vista had close to 100 people waiting in line since 6 a.m., but it was the online orders that had clerks scrambling to get items ready to ship.
“The atmosphere in general has changed,” said the store’s manager, Juan Mendoza. “It’s no longer just based on one day. It’s more stretched out. I believe it’s more convenient. It’s become easier to the point where people don’t have to be in line, especially if you’re computer savvy.”
Retailers won’t begin discussing sales results until Sunday or later.
Last year, Black Friday lost its perennial No. 1 spot after earlier Thanksgiving Day opening hours pushed some sales forward into Thursday, Martin said. Super Saturday, or the final Saturday before Christmas, took the throne in 2014.
But this year, with retailers such as Staples and H&M loudly advertising their decisions not to open on Turkey Day, Black Friday is likely to regain its top spot, Martin said.
"We see the pendulum swinging back a little bit," he said.
Follow Shan Li on Twitter @ByShanLi
Los Angeles Times reporters Ronald D. White and Tracey Lien, San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Joshua Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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