Mix a global pandemic with an old-fashioned Thanksgiving food coma and you’ve got a slower-than-average Black Friday.
Known for generating long lines, massive crowds and even the occasional fistfight in typical years, the day after Thanksgiving is the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season and has evolved into a quintessential example of consumerism. Surges in COVID-19 cases are being reported throughout the country and local merchants say that while there was a noticeable impact, their customers still ventured out to spend money.
“It seems (to be) a little bit of a slow start, but I only say that at 11 a.m.,” said John McNamara, co-owns LOOT with Erin MacLean at 62 Avenue A in Turners Falls. “It feels different, but people are in the store and we’re ready for them.”
McNamara said he and MacLean were carefully monitoring the store to adhere to COVID-19 safety regulations, which stipulate there can be no more than 10 people, including employees, inside at any given time. He said all customers have been respectful of capacity limits and mask requirements.
“We’re all on the same page,” he said.
McNamara said an employee was tasked with recording how many people were in the store and there were plans to provide hot cider to folks waiting outside. He said Black Friday is usually a busy day for the store, as customers flock in to purchase jewelry, cards and vintage Christmas ornaments. LOOT also sells a lot of repurposed industrial artifacts.
“People are in the mood to buy. I expect it to be great,” McNamara said.
The holiday shopping spirit carried over to High Street in Greenfield, where people stopped by the Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange to buy Christmas toys for pets large and small. Assistant Manager Bill Ovitt said Friday morning that the store had been busy, but probably not as much as in a non-pandemic year.
“But it is early,” he said. “Being a farm store, it’s a little bit different than Walmart or something like that. People are just getting what they need.”
Ovitt said the cooperative seemed to be selling a great deal of birdseed on Friday. He guessed that people may be feeding birds more than usual because it has not yet snowed and people are still stuck at home due to the public health crisis. He said smaller birds and those native to the area don’t fly south for the winter.
Business was healthy at Aubuchon Hardware at 312 Federal St. in Greenfield, but Manager Tim Seymour didn’t think Black Friday had caused any increase.
“It just seems like a normal day,” he said, adding that, as an essential retailer, the store didn’t close due to the pandemic lockdown. “The community really supports us, which I certainly appreciate.”
He said the store always does well on Small Business Saturday, which is today, because even though the company boasts 108 stores, it is still family-owned and has its home office in Massachusetts.
Seymour said the Greenfield store received a shipment of Christmas trees Wednesday night and had been selling a lot of tree stands and holiday lights on Friday. He figured people are taking advantage of the nicer weather.
“I don’t want to walk through 2 feet of snow to put up my Christmas lights, and I don’t think anybody else wants to, too,” he said, adding that it is smart to do it when “we can still see grass.”
Small Business Saturday is also a bigger day for Trail Head Outfitters & General Store at 1 South Main St. in Orange. Co-owner Paul Anderson said business on Black Friday tends to get busier later in the day.
“Everybody rushes to the big stores first to get their TVs, and then they come around to us. Our day is … Small Business Saturday,” he said at around noon on Friday. “When it comes to Black Friday, it’s a big box store day. They have the money to spend on television ads that the small guys don’t have.”
Anderson said he had been selling plenty of “gifty stuff,” like granola and flavored peanuts. He said by Dec. 1 he plans to get a shipment of 1,200 Darn Tough socks from Northfield, Vt., which are his top-seller all year.
The Walmart Supercenter in Orange is typically mobbed on the day after Thanksgiving, but the corporate retail giant opted to reinvent Black Friday by holding events over multiple days, moving the most in-demand items to online only and creating a socially distanced experience in its stores. According to the corporation, millions of customers took advantage of this.
Maria Uprichard, manager of Boswell’s Books at 10 Bridge St. in Shelburne Falls, said Friday morning had initially been slow but picked up closer to noon, possibly because fewer people are spending time at big box stores due to the pandemic.
“You can never actually predict what it’s going to be like in retail, pandemic or no pandemic,” she said. “It’s the nature of retail.”
USA Today reports the pandemic has converted Black Friday into “more like the longest Cyber Monday ever.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified “shopping at crowded stores just before, on or after Thanksgiving” on a list of higher-risk activities to avoid. Many big box stores are offering an increased number of online deals for Black Friday.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.