Bargains bring out crowds

Hundreds of holiday shoppers braved cold temperatures and a heavyrain, some all night long, waiting for Utah retailers to open theirdoors early Friday morning.

Qiyu Zheng of West Jordan began standing in line at 9 p.m.Thursday at the Best Buy electronics store at 261 W. 2100 South,waiting for the chance to purchase a $500 laptop computer thatregularly sells for $900.

By 5 a.m., Best Buy's parking lot was full, and a line of morethan 1,000 people had wrapped its way around the building, headingsouth on 300 West.

Other local stores saw similar lines and bulging parking lots asthey prepared to welcome hordes of bargain-seekers. ShopKo storesopened at 5 a.m. and offered shoppers free coffee and cookies, andMervyn's had a 5:30 a.m. opening, offering a free Santa ornament forits first 700 guests.

Target stores set a 6 a.m. opening, as did Toys R Us, which waspushing everything from video games to My Little Pony toys.

Elyssa Rognon of Bountiful took her place in line at Best Buy at11 p.m. Thursday. For Rognon, the day-after-Thanksgiving rush is anannual ritual. This year she came with her boyfriend. Together, thecouple waited to purchase CDs selling for $6.99.

"We parked our van right up on the sidewalk, and we sat in therefor like four hours," Rognon said. "We watched TV all night andplayed Monopoly."

Others, like Jacob Stokes of Centerville, pitched a tent.

"It was a lot warmer than out here," Stokes said. "Didn't get muchsleeping. It rained quite a bit."

Jeff Havemann, sales manager for Best Buy, said doorbusters suchas computers selling for $200 and digital cameras at $150 brought outthe crowds.

"We've been preparing since July," Havemann said. "We're expectingat least a 7 to 8 percent increase in sales. We still get customerscoming into our store for the first time."

By 6 a.m., the store's 75 employees were in position, ready forthe charge. A steady stream of shoppers entered the building fornearly 15 minutes. Moments later, a new line formed, this timewinding its way to the check-out registers.

Brian Tervort of Magna and Jeremy Davis of Kearns were the firstto make their purchases, each buying MP3 players selling for $30each.

"We stayed up all night," Davis said. "It was way worth it."

U.S. households this year are expected to spend an average of $476on gifts during the holiday season, up from last year's estimate of$455, according to a survey by the Conference Board.

Jay McIntosh, Americas director of retail and consumer productsfor Ernst & Young, said consumer electronic items are a hotlycontested category for big-box retailers. Other major holidaycategories expected to do well this year include apparel, jewelry andsporting goods.

McIntosh predicts a 6 percent rise in U.S. retail sales inNovember and December compared to the same period last year.

Driving much of this year's increased spending are affluentshoppers. In addition, increased sales at home improvement centersand online purchases are pushing sales.

Internet sales likely will see a 15 percent to 20 percentincrease.

"More than half of the homes that have Internet access now havehigh-speed access, and that makes shopping online so much moreefficient," McIntosh said. "Web sites are much easier to navigate."

And if credit card spending is an indication, this year's salesare sure to bring a smile to many retailers.

During the third week of November, spending by consumers andbusinesses on Visa branded payment cards totaled more than $23.1billion, an 18.8 percent increase over the same week in 2003,according to Visa's Holiday SpendTrak report.

While Best Buy counts the Friday after Thanksgiving as one of itsbusiest shopping days, the National Retail Federation places theSaturday before Christmas as the busiest shopping day of the year.

"It's not the day after Thanksgiving anymore," said McIntosh, whoadded that in the last two years sales on so-called "Black Friday"have been a counter indicator for overall holiday sales.

"Last year sales the day after Thanksgiving were very poor andholiday sales overall were good," McIntosh said, "and the oppositehappened two years ago."

Although many look forward to the after-Thanksgiving shoppingspecials, Adbusters Media Foundation, based in Vancouver, Wash., wasencouraging people to use Friday as a "buy nothing" day.

"Our take with the day is things are out of control," said TimWalker, a spokesman for the foundation. "This is supposed to be aholiday where we celebrate all the things we cherish, and basicallyit's been hijacked by the corporations and this idea that our freedomboils down to consumption."

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com