Shoppers and store managers in New York City disagreed on whether this year’s Black Friday was a success. With only 27 days between Black Friday and Christmas, stores were scrambling to make sales this holiday season.
Black Friday, for shoppers, is traditionally the first day to shop for holiday presents. However, for management, Black Friday is the one-day they are hoping to exceed in sales, and clear the red. According to the National Retail Federation’s Retail Insight Center, approximately 52 percent of adults planned to shop on Cyber Monday, but about 19 percent said they would use a mobile device.
“I only made about $33,000, and that was nothing. I needed to do a lot more,” said Rhonda Watson, the store manager of GameStop on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn.
Watson’s estimated goal for the anticipated night was $46,000.
Best Buy announced that it would join Toys R Us and J.C. Penney by opening at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. That is one hour earlier than Target, Sears, Kohl’s and Macy’s, which all opened at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“Sales were very slow, because a lot of other stores were open on Thanksgiving Day,” Watson said in an interview.
Saleesha Matthews, a 20-year-old Brooklyn resident, took advantage of the sales at Queens Center Mall.
“I bought electronics, and clothes. I went to Forever 21, Target, H&M, and Michael Kors,” said Matthews.
Matthews said when she got to the mall at 2 a.m. “the stores were open, but still had ridiculously long lines.”
Karen Lopez, manager of the McDonald’s in the Green Acres Mall, for the past nine months said, “We opened 6 p.m. Thursday, to 11 p.m. Friday. Business was slow until about 11 a.m.”
Lopez had hopes for a busy day, due to the number of stores in the mall that were having Black Friday sales.
According to numerous videos on YouTube, Black Friday turned from a day to save money on gifts, to brawls over a limited amount of electronics.
“There were no incidents at my store, but there was an attempted robbery at another GameStop,” said Watson, the store manager in Brooklyn.
David Curry, 23, from Jamaica, Queens said in an interview, “Of course I went shopping on Black Friday, it was a zoo. I brought towels, and cleaning supplies for my new house. Also some Blu-ray movies.”
In a recent survey, only one person out of 10, said they shopped on Cyber Monday.
“I just bought some weights on my iPad,” said Curry.
“[Black Friday] was frustrating, but I would do it again next year,” said the Brooklyn resident, Matthews. “I did not have time [to shop] Cyber Monday.
