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Area retailers prepare for Black Friday
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Article RatingBusinesses across the area are preparing for what they hope will be a big shopping season starting bright and early Friday morning.
That means smiling faces, warm greetings and help at every turn for prospective customers no matter if it is at 6 a.m. ... or if there are hundreds of people lined up waiting to get in ... or if they’ll do anything to get the item they want.
“It’s a quasi-holiday for us,” said Wayne Ruchalski, the general manager at Staples in Mechanicsburg. “We’ll have some in-store specials and early bird specials. This year I think what’s going to be big are the GPS units, digital cameras, digital picture frames, photo printers, MP3 players and the Dell computers we have in our stores for the first time — we kicked off the sale last Sunday, Nov. 11.”
Ruchalski is no novice when it comes to Black Friday sales, working at Staples for nine years and in retail for 20.
To make it easier for customers, Ruchalski is planning a new, slightly more organized system of tickets for items they’re expecting to be gone within a few minutes.
“We’ll be handing out tickets on the limited items before the store opens to those in line,” Ruchalski said. “That way, the people can hand us their tickets and we can get them the item. At best, it becomes organized chaos.”
Though the employees try to be as organized as possible with the tickets and training in a strategy session, Ruchalski still expects business to be very busy and slightly overwhelming for their staff.
“We have everyone on staff working Friday morning, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use a few more,” Ruchalski said. “We usually have five people working, but we’ll have all 15 Friday. It’s an all hands-on-deck situation. There’s not as many people working in retail as there used to be.”
While Ruchalski has never seen any fights break out in his store, he did have a few pieces of advice for the customers when shopping on Black Friday.
“My piece of advice to the customers is to have a strategy, remain patient, know that it’s very difficult for us to do what we do when we’re that busy and just think about what this season is really about,” Ruchalski said. “It’s really busy for us and takes a lot of hard work, but it’s just a fun time of the year.”
A different approach
Kathie’s Christmas & Collectibles is no stranger to holiday gift giving, but it won’t be following the lead of other stores that will be opening before the sun rises at 5 or 6 a.m.
“I don’t really play that game of getting up early,” said Kathie Hughes, owner of the store in Camp Hill. “People can come to us after they’re done shopping at those other places.”
The store will instead open an hour earlier than its normal hours, starting at 9 a.m. and running until 9 p.m. The extra hour will continue throughout the month of December until the day after Christmas, where the store hours will return to 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Though Hughes won’t be expecting the mad rush of customers at the break of dawn, her employees are well aware of what to expect and how they should handle situations. While breaking up a fight might not a normal occurrence at Kathie’s Christmas, shoplifting can be a problem.
Security concerns
“Last year, we had a detective from the Lower Allen police department come in and talk to our staff about that,” Hughes said. “We have now let our new employees know what he said last year, and so far it’s been working. Just the other day, an employee recognized it and approached the person.”
Along with training the employees, the store is also equipped with a security system and cameras, which they monitor from a back room. Hughes took the prospect of something like that happening very seriously.
“We do prosecute — we don’t just let it go, we will call the police,” Hughes said.
Retail chains aren’t the only businesses who are holiday-minded. Commerce Bank plans on opening its locations early Friday morning for early bird shoppers.
“Commerce Bank, already renowned for having the most convenient hours seven days a week, stretches its hours for this prime shopping holiday even further,” said Gary L. Nalbandian, Commerce Bank chairman, president and CEO. “Commerce Bank lobbies and drive-throughs will be open late on Wednesday and extra early for shoppers on Black Friday. Of course, all Commerce stores will be open Saturday and Sunday, too, as they are every weekend of the year.”
The drive-thru will be open two hours earlier at 6 a.m. on Black Friday and the bank lobby will open at its regular time at 8 a.m. Both the drive-thru and lobby will stay open until 8 p.m. that night.
Early birds
Opening times for some area stores on Black Friday:
4 a.m.
* Kohl’s
5 a.m.
* Best Buy
* Wal-Mart (sales start at 5, even though the 24-hour supercenter in Carlisle will be open before that)
* Boscovs
6 a.m.
* Circuit City
* Kmart
* Staples
* Target
Top gifts for girls
1. Barbie
2. Bratz
3. Dolls (generic)
4. Dora the Explorer
5. Disney Princess
6. Disney Hannah Montana
7. Nintendo Wii
8. Webkinz
9. Elmo
10. American Girl
Top gifts for boys
1. Transformers
2. Video Games
3. Nintendo Wii
4. Cars (generic)
5. Spider-Man
6. LEGOs
7. Thomas the Tank Engine
8. Xbox 360
9. Elmo
10. Remote Controlled Vehicles
Source: National Retail Federation
