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BIG on the Street: Black Friday, Part I
The highlight of my Black Friday? The 30 second checkout at Target…but more on that in a bit.
Black Friday shopping is tradition for my best friend, her mother, and me. We’ve woken up before the crack of dawn for nearly twenty years since before we could drive, but this was the first year we headed out on Thanksgiving night. The 9pm specials at Toys R Us were just too good for my friend (a mother of two) to pass up.
In order to keep the image of the perfect Thanksgiving intact for her young children, we started out after they were tucked in for bed. We arrived at Toys R Us (TRU) shortly before they opened, as three local TV crews readied themselves to record the madness. Our destination TRU is located in a shopping center with five other big box stores, still closed for the night. The line of shoppers stretched across the entire length of the shopping center, and we were at the very end of that line.
It was nearly 10pm before we were admitted to the store. With no toys on my shopping list this year, it was my job to help my friend hunt down her deals (which seemed to be scattered randomly throughout the store). I left my friend to jump in line while she waited for a sales associate (and a ladder) to pull down the last of a doorbuster toy still in its shipping box WAY at the top of the shelving. Yes, the reasoning escaped me as to why said toy was in stock, yet not on the shelves…I was further confused when the store manager decided to nix the ladder idea and tell my friend she was out of luck. Once the manager was out of view, my friend scaled the shelving…while this action was a bit extreme – and dangerous – better customer service would have made this a non-issue.
After standing in line for more than an hour, we finally made it out of TRU. As someone not buying for children, this wasn’t the best start to my Black Friday. But things picked up as we walked over to Target, located next door to the shopping center. It took us about 10 minutes of walking before we reached the end of the line at 11:15pm, which stretched across the store and down the end of the parking lot. A mutual friend met us here, and we waited for midnight to strike and Target to open.
For the obvious reason, we were not the first group of shoppers in our Target store. On my list were some cheap DVDs and a doorbuster gift; my expectations for finding this doorbuster were not high, knowing how far back in line we were. As we shuffled closer to the store, the excitement in the crowd grew. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, quite a contrast from the fist fights, brawls, and pepper spray incidents I later read about. As the first-in-lines came out with their deals, they waived to a cheering crowd. It was great.
Surprisingly, the wait was quick, and we made in into the store at about 12:15am, splitting up and agreeing to meet at the checkout line. I found my DVDs and my gift – still in stock – and headed to the checkout at the same time as my friend. The “line” was surprisingly short; in past years, lines have woven throughout the store, so it’s likely that extended hours spread the volume of shoppers out a bit. No joke, we were out of the store at 12:25am. Quickest. Target. Trip. Ever.
As we headed over to the mall, we received a call from our mutual friend…we had left her in our dust back at Target. Not a seasoned Black Friday shopper, she told us that she was still looking around in the store and was wondering where we were. She obviously wasn’t living by our Black Friday motto: Grab, Buy, Exchange Later.
Black Friday adventures continue on Tuesday, so stay tuned. And for more Black Friday insights, collected over the weekend by BIG, head over to the National Retail Federation’s Holiday Headquarters.
©2011, Prosper®
Trend Spy: November
Each month, we ask respondents in our Consumer Intentions & Actions® survey if latest trends, newest gadgets, and even “it” personalities are Hot or Not. The Hot or Not List is generally comprised of input from our respondents, gathered in the previous month’s CIA® survey.
We publish the overall results in the monthly Executive Briefing (see the November results here). In a nutshell, adults in general voted Giving Thanks, Black Friday, Tablet Devices, and Cyber Monday as the hottest trends for November, respectively.
But what’s hot is really dependent on age and gender, doesn’t it? What a teenager believes to be totes cool might not be the bee’s knees to a grandparent. (For the record, if you had to look up “bee’s knees” or “totes,” you probably have a completely different view of what’s hot or not).
This month, though, let’s Trend Spy on younger adults. Some of our findings were quite surprising when we compared data for younger men (aged 18 to 34) to younger women (also 18 to 34). For instance, who would’ve thought that young men would say that Black Friday was hotter than Tablet Devices? Eight out of ten (80.1%) cool dudes voted one of biggest shopping days of the year as hot, compared to 67.3% for Tablets. Guys for Black Friday even outnumbered the young ladies (75.0%). Perhaps retailers are missing the boat a hot demographic here…
Besides Black Friday and Tablets, younger men also named Giving Thanks (65.9%), Cyber Monday (58.9%), and Occupy Wall Street (45.6%) in their top five. In contrast, the hottest item for young women was Giving Thanks at 82.5%…so these ladies are 25% more likely to vote for Giving Thanks than their male counterparts, who are busy giving thanks for Black Friday. Three out of four (75.0%) women 18 to 34 also voted Black Friday as hot, followed by Tablet Devices (69.1%), Cyber Monday (56.9%), and [swoon] Twilight: Breaking Dawn (52.1%).
P.S. For more on Black Friday, stay tuned for our upcoming BIG on the Street post, where we’re planning to bring you highlights from our Black Friday excursion. With 152 million people planning to shop this weekend, it should be interesting.
For more information on this data, please contact BIGinsight™.
Source: Consumer Intentions & Actions® Survey – NOV-11 (N = 8502, 11/1 – 11/8/11)
© 2011, Prosper®
BIGinsight™ is a trademark of Prosper Business Development Corp.
Heyday for Layaway?
When the biggest name in retail – Walmart – announced that they planned to revive layaway for Holiday 2011, BIGinsight™ took notice. And this month as part of our November monthly survey, we asked consumers if they were planning to utilize this service to help with holiday shopping, what items they planned to add to layaway, and – of course – where they would open an “account.”
The results are in: more than one in ten consumers (12.2%) plan to utilize layaway for Holiday 2011. This number rises to 20.0% among Kmart shoppers*, 15.6% with Walmart shoppers, and 15.8% for Toys R Us shoppers. Best Buy shoppers index slightly lower than average (11.0%).
So why are we looking at Best Buy shoppers? Best Buy doesn’t offer layaway.
That might be too bad for Best Buy. A closer look shows us that among Best Buy shoppers planning to use layaway, 58.0% plan to put Electronics into a plan. And where are Best Buy shoppers most likely to use layaway services? That’s right, at Electronics rival Walmart. A holiday shopper knows no loyalty when it comes to finding the best way to maximize budgets and ward off debt.
But let’s get back to the broader details of our findings. Electronics (56.5%), Toys (40.3%), and Apparel (32.5%) are the items most likely to find their way into layaway this holiday season:

To be read as: Among shoppers planning to use Layaway this holiday season, 40.3% are planning to put Toys on Layaway.
Finally, while Walmart (69.0%) and Kmart (42.1%) are by far the preferred venues for layaway, it appears that Toys R Us and Sears will see a fair share of layaway shoppers as well:

To be read as: Among shoppers planning to use Layaway this holiday season, 69.0% are planning to use Layaway at Walmart.
For more information on this data, please contact BIGinsight™.
* “Shoppers” defined as those who shop most often at a particular retailer for one or more major merchandise categories (including Apparel, Shoes, Groceries, Electronics, Sporting Goods, Heath & Beauty Care, Linens/Bedding, Toys, etc.)
Source: BIGinsight.com
© 2011, Prosper®
BIGinsight™ is a trademark of Prosper Business Development Corp.
Customers’ Choice – A Look Back
Sorry…we aren’t about to reveal the 2011 Customers’ Choice Winners, but we have been hard at work on this year’s list in recent weeks. So I thought that now would be a great time to take a look back at previous winners.
For the past several years, we’ve been pleased to provide the research behind the Customers’ Choice Awards to the NRF Foundation…research which (of course) comes straight from the thoughts of more than 9,000 consumers in our Consumer Intentions & Actions® survey.
Zappos.com took home top honors in 2011, moving up from #3 in previous years. Perennial favorites for customer service include Amazon.com, L.L.Bean, and Overstock.com.
Below are the NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice Award Winners for the past two years:
2010
- Zappos.com
- Amazon.com
- L.L.Bean
- Overstock.com
- Lands’ End
- JC Penney
- Kohl’s
- QVC
- Nordstrom
- Newegg
2009
- L.L.Bean
- Overstock.com
- Zappos.com
- Amazon.com
- QVC
- Coldwater Creek
- HSN
- Lands’ End
- JCPenney
- (tie) Kohl’s, Nordstrom
To read more about the 2010 results as well as methodology, click here.
Stay tuned for the 2011 results, which will be announced at the NRF 101st Annual Convention & EXPO.
©2011, Prosper®