Many Philly retailers started Black Friday sales weeks early, hoping ‘buzz’ will drive demand

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are quickly approaching.

But at some stores, Black Friday deals have been back for weeks or even months.

Although supply chain woes wreaked havoc on last year’s holiday shopping season, many retailers now have plenty of inventory, several industry experts said. Now, they’re worried about demand amid record inflation.

As a result, retailers in Philadelphia and nationwide have expanded the holiday shopping season even more than usual. Some big-box stores offered sales in early October in hopes of catching shoppers before their holiday funds dried up, putting less pressure and urgency on the days around Thanksgiving.

Stores “are telegraphing when and how frequent sales will be on and trying to generate excitement and buzz around those sales,” said Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at the global consulting firm AlixPartners. They’re “taking a page from Amazon’s Prime Day approach, hyping up the sales, allowing early access to loyalty program members, laying out a schedule for when those sales are going to go live.”

Target’s holiday sales started Oct. 6 — “earlier than ever,” according to the company. In mid-October, Amazon added a second Prime Day to open the shopping season, while Kohl’s “Black Friday Early Access” deals began Nov. 4.

“Black Friday started on Nov. 1 and is going all month long,” said JC Penney spokesperson Nina Quatrino.

About 60% of Philadelphia retail executives said their companies started holiday promotions at least one to two weeks earlier this year than the previous year, compared with 37% in 2021, according to a recent Deloitte survey.

These sales, held earlier and more often, combined with the continued increase in online deals, should make for less of a Black Friday mad dash for shoppers, experts said.

About 54% of Philadelphia shoppers say they plan to go holiday shopping during Thanksgiving week, with the largest share, 37%, planning to shop on Cyber Monday, according to a Deloitte survey of local consumers.

“The line between what is Black Friday and what is Cyber Monday ... [is] ... becoming increasingly blurred,” said Jillian Hmurovic, an assistant professor of marketing at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business. “It’s meshing into this larger shopping season.”

With some shoppers having scooped up sales in October or early November, and others buying big gifts from the comfort of home on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, more people’s schedules are freed up in the days after Thanksgiving.

Several local shop owners said that benefits small businesses — not just on their own promotional day, Small Business Saturday, but all weekend.

“Black Friday has been ... [getting] ... stronger for us every year,” said Sara Villari, owner and creative director of Occasionette, a gift shop with locations in Collingswood, East Passyunk, and Chestnut Hill.

“People are free to be out on their main streets,” she added. “They don’t need to wait in line at Best Buy.”

At the Little Apple in Manayunk, Brandy Deieso has seen Black Friday get increasingly busy over the nine years that she has owned the Main Street gift boutique.

In Center City, Shibe Sports expects a busy weekend, too, but it will be more of the same since the Phillies’ World Series run and Eagles’ 8-0 start boosted business this fall.

“Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are not a big deal anymore after that,” co-owner Brian Michael said.

As Thanksgiving week approached, Drexel’s Hmurovic said consumers were reporting “subdued enthusiasm” for shopping that week, due to both economic concerns and the elongated holiday shopping season taking away some excitement from the weekend.

Already in Manayunk, “people are shopping earlier and are purchasing more holiday items than previous years,” Deieso said, noting that her shop is ahead in sales this month compared with the same time last year.

“I don’t know if they’re doing that because they’re nervous about what’s coming down the road or excited” about seeing family and friends, she said. “Maybe it’s a way to escape what’s going on in the economy or other stresses in their life.”

On average, Philadelphians plan to spend $1,489 this holiday season, a 3% drop compared with last year, according to the Deloitte survey of nearly 5,000 area consumers. Shoppers plan to spend less on retail purchases and more on experiences than they did last year, according to the poll.

Some will spend despite economic hardship: Of those Deloitte surveyed, 41% said their financial outlook was worse than last year, something only 20% of respondents reported in 2021.

“People are going to make the holidays happen this year, no matter what, for friends and families,” said Jenna Pogorzelski, a senior manager and Philadelphia retail expert at Deloitte. “It might come by way of less gifts or [more] gift cards.”

And it will certainly come through fewer blockbuster Black Friday deals at mall department stores, said AlixPartners’ Eshelman.

“Not too long ago there, were riots in stores as people were chasing shortages of key items and bashing down doors,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing for everybody that that one day is not such a focal point.”

Still, retailers will be watching consumers’ Thanksgiving week and early-shopping-season behavior closely, Eshelman said.

“The big question that I don’t have a crystal ball on is: Will consumers wait in hopes of better deals?” he said. “Or will they try to take advantage of the deals they’re offered now, worried that, like in past seasons, if you don’t buy it when you see it you won’t get it?”