Black Friday sales top last year’s

New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans)
November 29, 2011
GCCF doubles seafood payment formula
December 1, 2011
New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans)
November 29, 2011
GCCF doubles seafood payment formula
December 1, 2011

“It’s all about electronics,” Norlet Porter said as she and dozens of other consumers formed a line outside Best Buy in Houma Thanksgiving night.

Porter, along with more than 226 million shoppers across the United States anticipated Black Friday deals when big box stores opened as early as midnight Thursday and websites were activated to secure a record $52 billion in retail sales, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation.


The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, remained open Thanksgiving Day, to head off large crowds stampeding stores when doors were unlocked, but began offering deals beginning at 10 p.m. Some shoppers were still too late for head start opportunities.


Linda Stoufflet of Chauvin emerged from the Walmart on Martin Luther King Boulevard at 11:30 p.m. and said she had showed up 90 minutes earlier, but was still too late to claim one of 120 available Xbox bundles the store had advertised to attract shoppers.

“The big item is the Xbox bundle,” Stoufflet said. “And guess what? We didn’t get one. I bought two games but no Xbox. Now I have to find an Xbox.”


Filling their pickup truck with a load of purchases, Rebecca and Cody Jarboe of Houma said that they picked up several items at Walmart. “We have nine kids,” Rebecca said. “And they get what they want,” Cody added.


Back at Best Buy, Kerry Hutchinson was among the first in line with a ticket in hand to claim his opportunity to purchase a Samsung laptop computer once the store opened for those camped outside.

Houma Police were on hand to discourage any impolite behavior among shoppers. One police officer at the scene did not want to be named, but confirmed that the crowd had been well mannered and under control.


“I’m trying to get a TV,” Casey Burnett of Houma said.


“I’m waiting out here for a TV, a hard drive, a Playstation, a memory card and all kinds of goodness,” added David Petrie Jr. of Houma.

Tanner Landry of Bourg waited with others in the night air with what he suggested was a more realistic shopping plan. “I’m here to get whatever’s left,” he said.


Shoppers began lining up shortly after finishing their Thanksgiving meals and waited for Target to open at midnight.

“We’ve been here since 2 p.m.,” Lisa Hebert of Choctaw said outside the Houma store. “We made sure we were going to be first at the door.” Hebert wanted a 42-inch Westinghouse TV.

Sarah Hartman of Raceland was also among the first five people in a line that stretched across the front wall of Target and across the parking lot to Home Depot. Hartman arrived at the store 10 hours earlier and also wanted the promoted 42-inch TV.

“[This is] a promising sign for the economic recovery,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a news release issued by the organization Sunday afternoon. “After a historic holiday weekend, retailers know the holiday season is far from over and will continue to look for ways to excite holiday shoppers and build on the momentum we’ve seen thus far.”

The NRF head said that during the weekend , including Sunday projections , the number of purchases made in surveyed stores and on websites were up by more than 6 percent from the same shopping days in 2010. The average Black Friday weekend shopper spent $398.62 this year compared to $365.34 in 2010.

Of the 226 million shoppers listed, 28.7 million made their purchases online, up from 22.2 million one year earlier.

Tablets and iPads were among the most wanted items voiced by early shoppers, but there was no single must-have item listed among questioned consumers outside area stores.

Yet, during the official opening weekend for Christmas sales, BIGresearch surveyors found that 51.4 percent of purchases were clothing or accessories. Electronic sales were listed at 39.4 percent, up from 36.7 percent of purchases made for the weekend in 2010. Remaining purchases included home decor at 21.3 percent, gift cards at 23.1 percent, toys at 32.6 percent and jewelry at 21.8 percent.

The NRF said it intended to record online shopping on what it designated as Cyber Monday, which included one-day deals for website shopping. Projections listed 122.9 million Americans as planning to shop on Cyber Monday.

During the past two years, the NRF report said, an increased number of shoppers made use of smart phones and other mobile devices to make their Christmas purchases. In 2009, a listed total of 3.8 million shoppers took advantage of Cyber Monday. That number shot up to 106.9 million in 2010.

While more shoppers go online for Christmas purchases, there are still those that insist on making in-person journeys to stores during the three days following Thanksgiving.

Karen Yost of Thibodaux arrived at the Target store in Houma just moments before midnight Thursday. “We just showed up,” she said with family in tow. “[We came out for] whatever [we] are going to be able to get, but with all these people I doubt [we] will be able to get what [we] want.”