Retailers Extend Deals Beyond Black Friday

Retailers Extend Deals Beyond Black Friday
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/business/26friday.html

Attention shoppers: It might pay to just sleep in this Black Friday.

The conventional wisdom is that the most stupendous bargains of the year are to be had on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But the marketplace has become so packed on that crowded shopping day that some retailers are shifting their strategy.

Deals on certain products are likely to be just as good, perhaps even better, in the days and weeks after Friday. In this economy, retailers need to stand out — and some of them are betting they can do so by offering bargains later in the season. Also, while chains are not discounting as deeply as last year, they know the primary way to get penny-pinching consumers to spend is to keep the deals coming all season long.

Exactly which strategy retailers are pursuing this year differs not only among shopping chains but among categories of merchandise. That means the best time to shop for the season could hinge on which items are on your list.

“Black Friday is about cheap stuff at cheap prices,” said Daniel de Grandpre, the editor in chief of DealNews.com, which tracks such sales each year. “That means that high-end stuff is not on sale on Black Friday. It just isn’t.”

That is not to say consumers who brave the nation’s stores on Friday will not find deals on flat-screen televisions and fluffy ear muffs. But the products on sale that day, particularly electronics, generally are lower-end products without many extras, or they are older models on the verge of being discontinued. That is, of course, a reason stores are able to offer them at low prices.

“It looks like a real mixed bag of deals and duds,” said Andrew Eisner, director of content for Retrevo, a Web site that reviews consumer electronics and recommends where and when to buy them.

Many of the gadgets on sale this Friday will be outdated models, he said, like navigation devices without speech capability, Blu-ray players without Internet connections and digital cameras without face-recognition technology.

Manish Rathi, a co-founder of Retrevo, cited some “over-the-hill” products, like a Nikon CoolPix digital camera being sold at Target for $88, reduced from $140.

Mr. de Grandpre said luxury retailers tended to stay out of the Black Friday fray because they would rather not associate with bargain-basement shopping. To participate in the nation’s über-shopping day in a way that is befitting their status, luxury chains do offer deals, but only in certain popular holiday and seasonal categories, like coats and home décor. And they do not bother to open at 5 a.m., a common opening time on the day after Thanksgiving for the lower-end retailers known as big-box stores.

The luxury chain Saks, for instance, is offering 40 percent off already reduced merchandise, but not its newest collections. The chain does not bring in merchandise specifically for the day after Thanksgiving. And the doors open at the relatively late hour of 8 a.m.

“The key difference is we don’t run a strategy of these key items that we buy thousands of and that we mark down to these low, low amounts,” said Kimberly Grabel, senior vice president for marketing at Saks. “That is the big-box mentality.”

Stores have greatly reduced their inventories since last year, when the economic downturn forced them into panic selling. So while there will be sales, as there are every year in any economy, it is possible stores might run out of certain products or sizes. “For the best selection you are going to need to shop early this year,” Ms. Grabel said.

Her best advice? “Stay home and shop online.”

Indeed, on Wednesday, many stores had begun holiday promotions on their Web sites. On Wednesday, clothing was up to 40 percent off at Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Neiman Marcus and Barneys. At Nordstrom, merchandise was up to 50 percent off. At Lord & Taylor, some items, like women’s coats, were half off.

Saks planned to offer its early deals online at midnight Wednesday. “We figure some people will need a break from their family on Thursday,” Ms. Grabel said.

To distinguish themselves from discounters, the likes of Saks and Neiman Marcus also offer gift cards for spending a certain amount of money within a designated time period on Black Friday, which got its name because it was thought to be the day when retailers often shifted into the black, or became profitable. In the coming months, the chains will probably continue borrowing the idea of private, timed online sales.

Made popular by members-only shopping Web sites like Gilt, Rue La La and HauteLook, the sales give consumers a now-or-never incentive to buy, and are a less conspicuous way for stores to sell designer merchandise at a discount. Consumers must sign up for e-mail alerts on retailers’ Web sites to be in the know.

In general, chain stores will not divulge their promotion schedules for the rest of the shopping season, but some Web sites also track sales throughout the holiday season, including Deal- News.com, BlackFriday.info, and Bfads.net.

Expect some notable deals online on Monday, now called Cyber Monday, when consumers return to their offices and go holiday shopping on the Web.

This year, more e-commerce sites plan to offer bargains to win over reluctant consumers. For instance, Blue Nile, the online jeweler, has long avoided participating in promotional days. But no more.

“Even the wealthy have become more value-conscious,” said John Baird, a spokesman for Blue Nile, noting a shift in the behavior of its more affluent customers.

Blue Nile plans to offer two promotions on Monday — free overnight shipping on orders placed by 6 p.m. Eastern time, and discounts on a different item each day through Dec. 23. (On one of the days, a 15-carat diamond eternity bracelet will cost $27,000, down from $36,500. Blue Nile would not say which day the bracelet would be on sale.)

“We want to be very careful when we offer special promotions like this, to make sure they are brand-appropriate,” Mr. Baird said. “We’re not going to be like the mall jeweler, so you’re not going to see 50 percent off the entire store.”

Across-the-board sales are the specialty of the nation’s biggest big-box stores and Web sites, and they, too, began discounting before consumers roasted their turkeys.

Kmart had a “Better Than Black Friday Sale.” Best Buy offered “Early Black Friday Prices” on some televisions, and on Nov. 11 the chain offered its lowest-ever advertised price on a laptop, $250. Toys “R” Us had early blockbuster deals known as doorbusters. And for weeks, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has been offering deep discounts.

Consumers who missed those bargains need not fret.

“Once you’ve started discounting, it’s hard to stop midseason,” said Maggie Taylor, a vice president and senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service.

Some chains are even getting a jump on Monday, re-imagining it as Cyber Sunday. J.C. Penney, for instance, plans to offer its Monday sales beginning Sunday, for two days. Staples also plans to offer its Web deals on both Sunday and Monday.

Consumers can track hourly specials on CyberMonday.com, which will continue posting news about deals at the nation’s major online retailers long after Monday.