ROGERS — The sun rose Saturday to find a shopping scene completely unlike that of Friday’s hurried consumer melee in and around the Pinnacle Hills Promenade.
Friday many retailers opened hours before dawn, with hordes of shoppers queued at the doors. But although Borders Books, Eddie Bauer and other retailers opened slightly earlier Saturday than normal, foot traffic had already fallen dramatically.
The Friday after Thanksgiving has long been known as Black Friday because retail sales on that day often make the difference between overall profit or loss for the fiscal year.
But because the day has also become increasingly chaotic as shoppers aggressively seek out the best deals on limited-quantity merchandise, some people instead choose to hold off until the following day to do their holiday shopping, even at the risk of missing the best bargains.
Jennifer Bowman, with husband John and their three children, said the family’s experience in previous years had led her to swear off Black Friday shopping for good.
“Last year, at Target, I had a woman steal a Christmas tree out of my cart when I turned my back,” Bowman said. “It just wasn’t worth it.”
By 10 a.m. Saturday, the only sound outside the Promenade storefronts was the upbeat Christmas music, piped through small green speakers poking out of the mulch-covered landscaping beds. By noon, the parking lots surrounding the complex were about half full.
Outside the shopping complex, big box stores, such as nearby Best Buy and Target were also seeing milder foot traffic, and many of the shoppers interviewed said it was their habit to avoid the biggest shopping day of the year.
Rod Lueders, of Grove, Okla., said his holiday shopping involves picking presents for about 20 people each year. Exiting the Best Buy across from Pinnacle Hills, Lueders said his shopping is usually split between large chain stores and independent specialty stores such as those in Eureka Springs.
“When you have that many to shop for, you have to do a little of everything,” Lueders said.The Saturday following Thanksgiving has also been losing steam to the increasing popularity of online shopping, sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when shoppers return to work, but often begin trolling the Internet for online bargains.
Amanda Willard of Centerton said while she was shopping Saturday in lieu of the Friday crowds, she planned to do as much as 30 percent of her holiday shopping online.
“I do a little more every year,” Willard said. “I just don’t want to fight the crowds.”
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