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Shoppers get a jump on must-have holiday gifts

Black Friday brings long lines for bargains at area shops and stores

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Charles E. Shoemaker⁄The Gazette Washington, D.C., residents Ngonda Dibango, 15, and Victor Akosile, 16, shop together at Aeropostale’s 50 percent off everything sale on Black Friday at Westfield Wheaton.

‘‘I’m not sure who’s going to get what just yet, but I’m set for a while,” said Wyman, who started her morning at J.C. Penney, which opened 5 a.m. at Westfield Wheaton, followed by a trip to Target for its 6 a.m. opening.

Five sweaters, a necklace for her niece and a load of kitchen gadgets later, Wyman reported a very successful Black Friday, a day she said she planned more thoroughly than Thanksgiving dinner.

Black Friday, the day retailers traditionally begin making profits to recoup losses through the year, is the customary start of the holiday shopping season. Store owners open early and close late with offers of enormous discounts, often held in secret until days or even hours before they open their doors the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Consumer spending nationwide was up 19 percent this year, thanks in part to more shoppers seeking ‘‘door-buster sales” on high-end electronics, said Scott Krugman, spokesman with the National Retail Federation.

‘‘It’s still too early to measure, but from what we’ve seen, this Black Friday was one of the best Black Fridays we’ve ever seen,” said Debbie Young, marketing director for the Westfield Wheaton shopping center. ‘‘It’s a good indication for how the rest of the season could shape up.”

At Circuit City in Wheaton, hundreds lined up outside the electronics store before it opened 5 a.m., waiting for a chance to score sale items like a limited supply of Compaq Presario notebook computers for less than $300, select new DVD releases for $10 or less and heavily-discounted flat screen televisions and digital cameras.

‘‘Those categories always do well. ... With the electronics, it’s not surprising,” said Jie Zhang, professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

For Hyattsville resident Madeline Aimes, the difficulty in finding ‘‘that giggling Muppet” was surprising, with several failed attempts at Target and KB Toys stores in the Hyattsville and Silver Spring areas. Aimes, a mother of two children younger than age 5, had hoped she could be one of thousands of parents waiting to gift-wrap the elusive 10th anniversary Tickle Me Elmo TMX this Christmas.

‘‘I was a little naïve about the whole thing,” Aimes said at Silver Spring’s City Place Mall.

The KB Toys there only gets shipments of the Elmo doll about once a month, and those aren’t on shelves for very long, assistant manager William Woodland said. There were no Elmos in stock at that store on Black Friday, although the store did make nearly $9,000 in sales on Bratz Forever Diamondz dolls and World Wrestling Entertainment accessories.

The new and improved Elmo has been billed as the most interactive Elmo doll yet, despite the Sesame Street character’s turns as Hokey Pokey Elmo and Limbo Elmo. But the toy had the makings of a must-have for the toddler set months before Black Friday.

‘‘One criteria: Elmo,” said David Belsford, an employee at the Hobby City model shop in Burtonsville, of which toys are most popular going into the holidays. ‘‘If you have a tank, and you slap his face on there ... it’ll probably sell better.”

Zhang said the marketing hype in preparation for a holiday release, especially among video game console manufacturers, is partly to blame. And waiting lists for Sony’s new PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s interactive Wii are months long, as both gaming systems were released on a limited basis.

‘‘If a toy’s limited, you’re going to want it more. You start thinking, ‘This is suspenseful, this is wonderful, this is one of the biggest things ever,’” said Rosellina Ferraro, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

But for consumers in search of that perfect gift, the reasons don’t matter. What matters is that they don’t have a disappointed pair of eyes looking up at them on Christmas morning.

‘‘I’m glad I don’t have the young kids to worry about anymore,” said Silver Spring resident Al Reaney at the beginning of his shopping day 7 a.m. Friday with his wife at Westfield Wheaton. Reaney is the grandfather of four, but he leaves it to his daughter and son-in-law to tackle the must-have gifts each year.

‘‘I might just do gift certificates this year,” he said.