Clarksville, TN – After a day of eating Turkey on Thanksgiving, most people were looking for nothing more than a good nap. But others began to plan their evenings shopping. Black Friday is always one of the largest retail days of the years with store after store competing to offer the biggest deals to lure the shoppers inside.
The warmer than normal weather encouraged a larger than normal turnout with lines snaking around buildings and zigzagging across parking lots.
Best Buy
At Best Buy, I found Daniel and Kristin Brigance along with Steven Killian at the head of a very long line. They had skipped Thanksgiving altogether to ensure their place at the front of the line. Having eaten Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday, they thought why not get a head start on the other bargain seekers. “This is my first black Friday I have never been out to do this before,” said Daniel. When asked if he would do it again, he said “Why not it’s been fun. we had a tent, tv, and a Playstation.” Kristin chimed in “They kind of moved in.”
After a few issues last year including a trampling at the local ToysRUs store; Clarksville Police Officers were out in force. Some officers were working overtime for the retailer, while others were on duty that night. They had to remove one person from the property at Toys R Us, and had to stop a group of late arrivals who tried to form their own alternate line at Best Buy. “I find the police presence entertaining” said Daniel.
Charles Merrit felt differently, “I am very grateful for the increased police presence at this years Black Friday sales, with all these people it keeps people quiet, keeps it calm, and keeps everyone safe.” He had been at Best Buy almost 15 hour. He arrived at 8am on Thanksgiving day and was the 11th person in the line. He was shopping for a deal on a 42″ LCD HD TV.
Soldiers Chris Vosmik, Jose Feliciano, Carlos Castaño, Greg Brooks, and Daniel Miller had arrived around 1:00pm. They were hoping to score TV’s, Surround Sound systems, Games, and Movies. They were deployed on Black Friday last year, and were “Making up for last year.” “This is Awesome,” said Feliciano. “Everyone else seems to have like a scowl on their faces, but we have had great time,” said Vosmik. We’ve sat here talking, we even had Thanksgiving Dinner delivered to us. We do it right.” He continued “The police presence really helps a lot, I approve.” Brooks added “For once,” and everybody laughed.
Raynetta Drinnon and Jenell Hahn were near the back of the line at Best Buy, “Its crazy, truly crazy,” said Drinnon. “It’s always just a good time to get good stuff, we usually end up getting more things for ourselves and the house than gifts for the Christmas Season. Hahn feels that the economic realities are what were driving the heavy turn out. “What you are seeing right now is a sign of the economic mood of the country, people are looking for deals” she said. Drinnion added, “What ever you save big time in one place, gives you some money to get something somewhere else.”
Best Buy’s General Manager Rick Pyle took a few minutes to talk with us as we were waiting for the store to open to the pubic. “We are expecting a big crowd, as you can see the line is so long it reaches clear across the parking lot, all the way to the highway that runs behind the store.”
He expressed genuine concern for the people who have waited for the store to open. “We made sure the lights are left on so that people can be safe, we have the little porta potty’s to make things easier for them.” They were the only store which had that level of consideration for their customers needs.
“We know people have a lot of choices out there, so we appreciate the customers who come to do their shopping at Best Buy. We want to make it as easy as possible for people who are going to be shopping here today,” said Pyle.
An incredible level of planning went into making sure their customers Black Friday experience go as smooth as possible, “We started 6 weeks to 2 months ago talking about the prep, how the floor would be laid out, and how the flow of customers would be coming into the store.”
They planned for organized chaos which is probably the best way thing they could do things. Part of that involved having added security on hand at the store. “We have never had an incident, and we hope we never do. So we hired extra security simply as a precaution. We want our customers and employees to be safe. Part of that is the presence of the Clarksville Police Department.”
Both General Manager and Staff at Best Buy were very cooperative, giving us the complete run of the store to document the evening, even allowing us access to the store before the official opening.
I want to thank them for doing so. So many Chain Stores do their best to exclude the media that it was quite refreshing to find one as large as Best Buy so open and helpful. They have secured my business!
Toys “R” Us
At Toys “R” Us, before the doors were opened the line snaked around the back of the building which houses the store, and all the way across the parking lot to the IHOP restaurant. Once the doors opened the line moved quickly. The General Manager of the store was out front but declined to be interviewed for this story.
Friends Meghan, Connie, Rose, and Liz were further up in the line, and were looking for a deal on a Transformer, a Xbox Kinect, and stuff for their girls. They had plans to visit a bevy of stores during black friday including Target, Walmart, Kmart, and JcPenny to start. Connie joked, “Let me just say I was kidnapped, I did not want to come here, I was forced.”
HHGregg
At HHGregg, Bill Kidwell and his wife were playing cornhole in the parking lot to keep themselves entertained. The target was well designed for night time tournaments the hole was surrounded with bright LCD lights. They were hoping to buy a camera, HD TV, and various other small items.
Target
Ryan and his wife Ashley were ready to purchase the first christmas tree for their new home. The couple had been stationed at Fort Campbell and had decided to purchase a home in the community from Exit One Realty. “It’s too crowded for me said Ryan.” “We started at 9:00pm at Walmart,” but it was too crowded and so they had left to head to Target.
Governor’s Square Mall
At Governor’s Square Mall, friends Maria Jones, Ashley Wright, Krystal Loveberry and her brother Antonius were at the head of a long line of people. “We are going to do a lot of shopping” said Maria. Ashley added, “We are looking for shoes.” When asked about the experience Maria said “Cold, it’s been very cold.” She continued “I can’t believe we were first in line at the Mall.”
Susan Thomas and her two daughters Heather and Bethany; along with Friends Kirstin Rodenhaber and Courtney Burney were in line with plans to visit Victoria’s Secret for the Tote Bag, then to Old Navy for the Free Camera. They had arrived around 10:00pm.
Overall peoples sentiments on the economy were mixed by my completely unscientific survey, I found that most people planned on reducing their spending as much as possible this year. Others were going to spend about the same. A very few said they would be spending more this year, and some of those were simply because they were deployed last year.
What does this mean for retailers, simply this offer a great deal and people will come.
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