Red letter day for Black Friday shoppers
Shoppers look for good deals on Black Friday at Washington Crown Center.
Clarence Spicer of South Strabane Township waits for his wife Nancy, who was shopping the Black Friday specials at Washington Crown Center.
Black Friday shopping has been a tradition of sisters Lisa Post of Fairmont, W.Va., and Kelly Roddy of Washington. Kelly’s daughter, Keira, 9, joined them this year.
Tammi Gavlik of McMurray shops the Black Friday sales at Washington Crown Center.
The Roddy family wasn’t a rowdy family Thursday. But the possibility existed.
They had 47 people in their Washington home for Thanksgiving.
“Downstairs it’s all kids,” Keira Roddy, 9, said with a smile.
She was strolling through Washington Crown Center Friday with her mother, aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother, helping to fulfill one of three late November Roddy rituals: a big holiday meal, staying in on Thanksgiving and shopping on Black Friday
“Thanksgiving is for family,” said Keira’s mother, Kelly, expressing a sentiment that was widespread among shoppers interviewed inside the North Franklin Township mall Friday morning. All who went on record reveled in their browsing and buying, yet none of them hit the stores the day before. To do so would have been a black mark on their consciences on the eve of Black Friday.
Despite a continuing increase in online holiday shopping, the day after Thanksgiving remains one of the biggest days of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers. Stores in recent times have ramped up Black Friday strategies to include Thanksgiving hours, but there has been a public backlash over that the past couple of years, prompting some companies and malls to drop holiday sales. Crown Center has done so the past two Novembers.
Kelly Roddy and her sister, Lisa Pope of Fairmont, W.Va., resumed their decade-long tradition of shopping together on Black Friday. Their sister, Angi Smith of Newell, usually accompanies them but could not this time. They still had a gang of five, including the sisters’ mother and grandmother, who were in a store at the time.
Crown Center opened at 6 a.m., but the clan arrived a little later. “It’s nice and not too busy,” Post said around 10 a.m. “The lines are not bad. Grandma loves it and mom does too.”
Tammi Gavlik of McMurray did arrive at 6, eager to get going. “I think people should be at home on Thanksgiving,” she said, still buoyant the morning after preparing dinner for 14 at her home. “I did the cooking for our family for Thanksgiving. My treat is to go shopping on Black Friday.”
She said some Crown Center stores “are always” jammed, but she prefers shopping at that mall to South Hills Village, which is a bit closer to home but more crowded.
“I’ll hit Walmart, Sam’s and Target along the way,” said the mother of two teens. “I’m looking for electronics and clothes a little bit. Not the hot items like when they were little.”
Sara Henderson, apparently, is a decisive consumer. A mere 45 minutes after entering the mall, she was carrying four large bags bursting with holiday treasures.
“It hasn’t been crazy. You get in and out pretty quickly,” said Henderson, who was accompanied by her mother, Jean Oliverio. The Canonsburg women are longtime Black Friday aficionados.
“We’ve been doing this for years, going back to when stores started opening at 4 a.m.,” Oliverio said.
Henderson said she has never gone holiday shopping on Thanksgiving and probably never will. “I think it’s wrong to make people work on a day like that.”
Her mother said she isn’t opposed to Turkey Day shopping, “but I’m usually too busy.” Oliverio hosted 20 for Thursday dinner.
Crown Center was a retail focal point in Washington County on Friday, but certainly not the only one. South Strabane Township’s four large shopping outposts – Trinity Point, Strabane Square, Tanger Outlets and Old Mill – attracted large numbers of shoppers. Field & Stream, the outdoors store in Old Mill, opened at 5 a.m. and was especially busy in the early afternoon.
National analysts are predicting this to be a strong retail season, which appeared to be the case locally.
Women appeared to seriously outnumber men at most venues, including Crown Center. Only one man consented to be interviewed, Clarence Spicer of South Strabane.
“I’m not a shopping expert. I follow the lead and the leader is Nancy,” said Spicer, 82, referring to his wife of 59 years. Nancy was in a store as he relaxed on a small bench, donning a baseball cap, displaying a sharp wit and regaling anyone within earshot of some grand stories.
Asked whether he likes to shop, Spicer paused for a millisecond and said, “Not really. We’ve downsized twice. We have too much stuff.
“I’ll just sit down and wait.”
He was enjoying the morning as much as anyone.