GILROY
– Before the sun had a chance to rise Friday, a thick line of
anxious customers wrapped around the corner of the Gilroy Wal-Mart
an hour before the retail giant opened its doors at 6 a.m.
GILROY – Before the sun had a chance to rise Friday, a thick line of anxious customers wrapped around the corner of the Gilroy Wal-Mart an hour before the retail giant opened its doors at 6 a.m.
As the day went on, over at the Gilroy Premium Outlets, fleets of motorists spent 30 minutes waiting for a dearth of open parking spaces as traffic control officers and police on horseback kept some semblance of order.
Not even economic doldrums could make the first day after Thanksgiving, and the weekend that followed, anything less than what it has evolved into – America’s inauguration of the Christmas shopping season.
“They ran in here when we opened, and there’s been a constant stream ever since,” Wal-Mart Support Manager Silvia Valverde said. “There’s so many more people than last year.”
Valverde, who has worked at the local Wal-Mart the past six years, said not since the Furby doll craze a few years back had she seen such a steady flow of shoppers.
“It’s hectic, but I love this time of year,” Valverde said while on a smoke break with some coworkers. “I’ve worn this same Christmas sweater the past six years. I get into this.”
Total retail sales across the nation Friday were up 4.8 percent to $7.2 billion compared to the Friday after Thanksgiving a year ago, according to ShopperTrak, which tallies sales at 30,000 retail outlets.
This year’s retail figures follow a 6.8 percent gain last year over 2001 results.
“Big box” retailers around Gilroy saw a similar type of shopper blitz Friday and stores buzzed over the entire weekend – a three-day period when 10.1 percent of all Christmas gifts are purchased, according to the retail industry.
“Right now we’re slammed (with customers),” said Jennifer Dority, a manager at Best Buy, which opened its Gilroy doors just last week. “I’ve been doing about 20 things at once all day.”
Christmas shoppers also visited Gilroy’s other new large retailer, Target.
“We’re on track for sales, and we may be exceeding expectations,” Target Manager David Manges said. “I absolutely believe this will be a great selling season.”
Not all retailers were as optimistic.
Over at the Outlets, Zales jewelry store manager Brian Plowman estimated shopper traffic to be what it was last year even though the store was touting deals from 20 to 70 percent off regular price.
“Our promotions are better than last year,” Plowman said. “I’m hoping for more (business) over the weekend.”
Zales was not alone in its high discount offerings. The Versace outlet had a significant portion of its clothing marked down 30 percent, but to little avail.
A sales clerk at the Versace outlet, who declined to give her name, estimated that more shoppers came to Italian-designer’s store last year the Friday after Thanksgiving.
“We’re open on the weekend and later tonight, too, so who knows, we could get busy,” the clerk said.
Retail analysts have largely good news for stores hoping to end a rough economic year on a high note. The Washington-based National Retail Federation projects total holiday sales to be up 5.7 percent to $217.4 billion from last year. That compares with a modest 2.2 percent increase in 2002.
Stores should also benefit from a quirk in the calendar – the holiday season has 27 shopping days, instead of last year’s 26.
There were other indications that overall, it was a good weekend:
• Online sales had a strong showing on Friday. Research firm comScore Networks Inc., reported online sales rose 38 percent to $200 million on Friday from $145 million a year ago.
• Visa USA said total U.S. spending on Visa credit and debit cards on Friday and Saturday rose 12 percent over the same period last year.
• Wal-Mart said it hit a single-day company sales record on Friday, taking in more than $1.52 billion nationally, up 6.3 percent from $1.43 billion for the day after Thanksgiving a year ago.
• Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers, which owns or manages 31 shopping centers in 13 states, said stores reported more customers were paying full prices. On Friday and Saturday, business was up in the mid single digits from a year earlier based on a sampling of stores.
The weekend’s business is not necessarily an accurate gauge of how the rest of the season will fare. Last year, stores enjoyed a robust Thanksgiving weekend, but sales then began to deteriorate.
Still, many retailers believe the holiday 2003 season will be better than last year, the question is by how much. The economy is on the rebound, but the job market, though improving, is still sluggish, especially in Silicon Valley.
In fact, stores around the nation are aiming to avoid getting stuck with mounds of holiday leftovers by entering the season with inventories that average 7 percent below last year’s levels.
Retail businesses aren’t the only ones crossing their fingers for good retail sales. In these rough economic times, as the state finds more ways to shift local money to Sacramento to balance the books, city managers like Gilroy’s Jay Baksa hope for strong retail sales.
Gilroy keeps 1 percent of the sales tax generated from its retail stores, a number that could add $4 million a year to the city’s general fund in future years. With an onslaught of several new big box retail outfits, Gilroy figures to have one of its more lucrative Christmas seasons in history.
“We won’t know the outcome (locally) until (early) 2004,” Baksa said. “But obviously as we become more dependent on retail tax dollars we want these retail cycles (like the week before school starts and the month before Christmas) to go well.”
For Salinas residents Joyce Fryn, Barbara Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Chavez, economic data was the furthest thing from their mind Friday as they nursed coffees outside of the Starbucks stand at the Outlets.
A line of coffee drinkers 24-people-deep, a crowded parking lot and long checkout lines couldn’t sway the trio of friends – they belong to the same Christian singles club – from enjoying the day.
“There’s people everywhere. It takes a half-hour to park. We ate lunch in our car at In ‘N’ Out. What can I say, we like crowds,” Chavez said, laughing with her friends.
“We’re delighted to be here. You know how crazy it gets, so we just go with the flow. It’s part of the season,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Associate Press contributed to this report.
