Retail workers prepare for Black Friday throngs
By 7 a.m., the parking lot at Best Buy on Pleasant Place in Arlington was filling up like a brisk holiday shopping day.
But these weren’t shoppers ready to squeeze into the partially ajar front door. Instead, around 140 employees were shuffling in — even though the store wouldn’t open for hours.
Along with some 100,000 Best Buy workers at 1,000 of its big-box stores across the country, the store employees were there on Saturday to participate in a dry run for one of the most hectic sales days of the year — Black Friday, and this year, Thanksgiving night.
“We approach Black Friday with equal parts dread and excitement,” Mark Stewart, the store’s general manager, told his employees during the logistics meeting that started off their day. “Business is coming in really fast, but you have a lot of help.”
There’s a lot at stake. The holiday selling season can make or break a retailer’s year, and though Best Buy reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, it is only forecasting flat revenue growth during a fourth quarter expected to be dominated by big sales.
According to a Gallup Poll released on Monday, Americans project they will spend $720 on gifts this year, up from a $704 estimate in November 2013. The National Retail Federation has forecast a 4.1 percent increase in spending in November and December, up from a 3.1 percent increase for the same period last year.
Stewart, who has been at the Arlington store for five years, told his employees that he expected ardent Black Friday shoppers to begin lining up by midweek for the Friday sale. And early Tuesday morning, the first tent appeared. Ken Lee, 24, said this will be the third year that he and 10 friends will be the first in line at the store.
“We do it ’cause it’s fun,” Lee said. “We bring in a Thanksgiving meal and all hang out together. We like it because of the cheap deals.”
Eventually, Stewart said, some 200 shoppers will snake around the entire perimeter of the building and the line will then lap itself at least partially. If it’s cold, shoppers in line will hook up space heaters and generators using their trucks, he said. Each year, the first ones in line — his “regulars” — create the rules for breaks, food and substitutions.
“It’s similar to a line at Six Flags,” Stewart said in an interview. “Black Friday is an exciting thing for them. It’s the thrill of the chase.”
This year, that chase begins at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, when Best Buy will have its first of two “doorbuster” deals. The second round will begin at 8 a.m. Friday morning. Several other big-box retailers are also opening at 5 p.m. including Toys R Us and J.C. Penney, while Wal-Mart, Macy’s and Target will have doorbuster openings at 6 p.m.
“We’ve had vouchers for the hottest deals that we pass out two hours before each doorbuster sale starts,” Stewart said. “That does control the chaos.”
This year, Stewart said customers who have scoped out the newly-redesigned store have already told him they are looking at the 50-inch Panasonic high-definition television for $199, Galaxy S5 smartphones for $1 (with a two-year contract), and deals on tablets and the GoPro camera.
The Panasonic television offer is an especially screaming deal, according to the editors at DealNews.com
“If you want to make a statement, offering a brand-name HDTV as your show-stealing doorbuster is a heck of a way to do it,” wrote Louis Ramirez, senior features writer at DealNews. Ramirez also found historic low prices on Best Buy’s Black Friday deals for a Samsung Tab Pro at $200 and an unbranded Windows tablet for $150.
At the Arlington store, employees were told about extra pay incentives for high-grossing stores during the Black Friday weekend, along with strategies of how to sell to a group instead of the typical one-on-one approach used during regular days at the store.
After a session in their individual departments, workers returned to the front of the store to practice the onslaught — some acting as shoppers running to deals, others as workers providing doorbuster vouchers, directions and advice.
“Make sure you give shoppers the complete package, including batteries and cords,” one manager advised. “No one wants to wake up Christmas morning and not be able to turn on their new toy.”
Cashier Celeste Martinez, who just started at the company five weeks ago, said she is excited and little nervous about the upcoming shopping weekend.
“I usually shop on Black Friday,” she said. “I’ve been on the customer side, and now I’m on the other side. My challenge is going to be remaining cheerful.”
One thing that might help that smile is a little more sleep than she would have had last year. Best Buy has announced it is closing from around 1 a.m. Friday until the store reopens at 8 a.m. Sales were minimal during that time period last year, so they are not having employees pull another all-nighter, Stewart said.
Also, Thanksgiving workers are largely volunteers and receive extra holiday pay, Stewart said.
While Arlington police will be present during the Black Friday opening, Stewart said the store has not previously had any altercations.
“People from completely different backgrounds come together,” he said. “It’s urban camping. They have their thermal electric blankets and sleeping bags.”
And for at least some of those doorbuster deals, customers can stay home in their pajamas and shop online, then pick them up later at the store, Stewart said. Best Buys across the country have turned their stores into warehouses for in-store pickup and shipping, he said.
This article includes material from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.