Whatcom holiday shopping is here, no matter what the day

Black Friday continues to blur the lines when it comes to the starting day for big shopping discounts.

While some Whatcom County retailers will continue to have doorbuster sales in the early morning of Friday, Nov. 27, many have chosen to open on Thanksgiving morning or afternoon. Online shoppers already may have found their Black Friday deal last week, or may find it on Cyber Monday, Nov. 30.

What about those who prefer to shop at small, locally owned stores? Then Saturday, Nov. 28, is your day.

Basically retailers want customers thinking about Black Friday as more like Black Week, or weeks. The National Retail Federation noted that nearly 60 percent of holiday shoppers have already started making a dent in their gift list. Even so, 133.7 million people are expected to shop for gifts sometime between Thursday and Sunday.

“In the future I think retailers will follow more of an online model,” said Dev Shapiro of Gottadeal.com, which keeps track of retail sales, including Black Friday ads. He added that while retailers will have more Black Friday sales at a variety of times and days, he doesn’t think we’ll see more of the Thursday “creep,” or earlier openings on Thanksgiving, which has produced some consumer backlash.

Even with some backlash, many consumers do like the Thursday openings. When the Bellingham Best Buy electronics store switched to a Thanksgiving afternoon opening last year, it still had a line at the door that backed up to the nearby Costco store, said General Manager Darren Pobran. But with ongoing sales, customers also were coming in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For workers, he said the plus side is there are no midnight or 5 a.m. openings to mess up sleep patterns.

The demeanor of the crowd also is a bit different with the afternoon openings, with people usually in a better mood than the midnight or 5 a.m. openings.

“I think some people may not have had their coffee yet,” Pobran joked, referring to the late night and earlier morning openings.

DASH CAMS, STREAMING DEVICES TRENDY

With the rise of Uber and other transportation service companies, Shapiro said dashboard cameras for cars are a popular item this holiday shopping season. The cameras can be used to show who was at fault in a traffic crash, for example, or can be pointed to the back seat to capture images of an unruly customer.

As more people choose to stream television shows, music and movies, devices like Roku are also popular and stores are selling them at deep discounts, Shapiro said. Televisions that have built-in streaming devices also are coming down in price.

While streaming is now a hit, Shapiro thinks Blu-Ray discs will remain popular, particularly with movie buffs. The price has come down to the point that they would make good stocking stuffers.

Large flatscreen TVs are a staple in doorbuster sales, and the 4K televisions are this year’s hot item, according to Shapiro. The 4K TV has a higher resolution and other features that make for a clearer picture.

“It’s the first year the 4K television has really come down in price, making it a reasonable buy for customers,” Shapiro said.

As the much-hyped new “Star Wars” movie gets ready to hit theaters in mid-December, the marketing department is in hyper-drive pumping out as many toys and other merchandise as possible. “Star Wars” merchandise is expected to do quite well, as adults who enjoyed the first movie release nearly 40 years ago now have the disposable income to buy products not just for themselves but for their children or grandchildren.

Household items such as vacuum cleaners and coffee makers also offer good deals, according to the ads Shapiro has seen.

One other trend Shapiro has noticed this year is more businesses not typically known for Black Friday sales are participating in them, such as travel cruise companies and stores that sell building materials. That’s good news for consumers looking for for those special items at the small, local stores. Whether it’s online or at the small storefront, every retailer now has a voice to promote some sales, no matter what day of Thanksgiving week.

“I don’t see that going away anytime soon,” Shapiro said.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Whatcom holiday shopping is here, no matter what the day."