For all the hype and hysteria, most adults don’t actually hit the stores on Black Friday.
Typically one-quarter to one-third of adults say they will shop in stores over the holiday weekend, according to recent annual surveys by BIGresearch. Historically, most of those shoppers have gone on Black Friday.
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Specific numbers were not available for the Washington region, but many locals said they wouldn’t set foot in a store Friday.
“If I could get it online anyway, why would I?” said Rockville resident Robin Ferrier. “Time is money to me. I’ve got a kid and a full-time job and a house and there’s better things I could be doing than standing in line.”
That’s just fine with retailers who have an online presence, experts say.
“It’s not about stores versus online,” said National Retail Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis. “Retailers don’t care where people shop, they care that they shop with them.”
D.C. resident Sylvia Brown said she braved the Black Friday crowds — once. And never wanted to do it again.
“They sucker you in with $200 on a large screen TV and it turns out they only have five in stock,” she said of going to a Walmart early opening several years ago. “Once I got there, the product I was looking for was gone. Once you started figuring that out you realize [the sales are] just to get you in to up-sell you.” – Liz Farmer
