Black Friday shopping stories are not news

YankeeFan · Nov 25, 2011

trifectarich said:

An op-ed piece in Thursday's NYT had a good suggestion: all the sales that occur between Thanksgiving at 6 p.m. and Friday at 6 a.m., tax those at 6 percent above any and all state and local taxes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's brilliant.

Here's some info for you: The folks shopping last night & this morning are the "99%".

This Times article explains, and shows how to do a news story on Black Friday:

As the busiest retail weekend of the year begins late Thursday night, the differences between how affluent and more ordinary Americans shop in the uncertain economy will be on unusually vivid display.

Budget-minded shoppers will be racing for bargains at ever-earlier hours while the rich mostly will not be bothering to leave home.

Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy and Target will start their Black Friday sales earlier than ever — at 9 and 10 p.m. in some instances — with dirt-cheap offers intended to secure their customers’ limited dollars. A half a day later, on Friday morning, higher-end stores like Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom will open with only a sprinkling of special sales.

The low-end and midrange retailers are risking low margins as they cut prices to attract shoppers, while executives at luxury stores say that they are actually able to sell more at full price than in recent boom years.

“We’re now into a less promotional environment than we were before the recession,“ said Stephen I. Sadove, chairman and chief executive of Saks. In the third quarter, for instance, Saks reduced the length of an annual sale to three days from four, and excluded the high-margin category of cosmetics from another regular sale.

Retail analysts are expecting a decent holiday season, with many estimating that sales will increase about 3 percent over last year, with contributions from shoppers across income levels. Yet the Friday after Thanksgiving, the kickoff to the highest-revenue weeks for stores, is expected to lay bare the increasingly parallel universes of retailing in America, the analysts said.

“Those in a more modest income situation are the people who are going to the Wal-Marts and the Best Buys and the Targets at 8, 9, 10, 11 p.m. with little kids in tow because they can’t afford a baby sitter,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultant firm. “It’s a very unpleasant shopping experience, frankly, for a lot of people.”

Meanwhile, many affluent shoppers will avoid the scene altogether, he said. “The women who are shopping the fourth floor at Saks are not Black Friday shoppers,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/business/black-friday-sales-show-divide-between-shoppers.html?scp=4&sq=black%20friday&st=cse
Click to expand...

And, that provincial, little paper has another Black Friday story as their lead story on nytimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/business/black-friday-shoppers-fan-out-in-the-dark-of-night.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

But, what do they know about news or journalism?

YankeeFan · Nov 25, 2011

Michael_ Gee said:

New York Times article today on some hotshot computer scientist who says he has statistically proven today is NOT the day where prices are lowest before Christmas, and that shoppers should wait until first week of December. There was a Black Friday story I read. Even the dullest stories have some angle to find.
I think readers, viewers, etc. would be unhappy without their non-news evergreens. They WANT to see a picture of the mayor serving turkey to the homeless, etc. It's just part of their holiday rituals, and like all rituals, is cherished without really understanding why.
Click to expand...

Here's that story:

Oren Etzioni writes articles about artificial intelligence for scholarly journals, is a renowned expert on data mining and gained fame when Microsoft paid $115 million for Farecast, an airline-ticket price predictor he founded.

Now, Professor Etzioni, who teaches computer science at the University of Washington, has directed his considerable intellect at the American ritual of shopping for bargains on Black Friday. After examining billions of prices of consumer electronics, he has decided to spend the busiest shopping day of the year scuba-diving in Bali.

Why? It is not until early December, Professor Etzioni’s research shows, that prices are likely to be the lowest for electronics, products that are among the biggest sellers on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

“The bottom line is, Black Friday is for the retailers to go from the red into the black,” he said. “It’s not really for people to get great deals on the most popular products.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/business/fridays-deals-may-not-be-the-best.html?hpw
Click to expand...

As he points out, Black Friday is still the day for, "great deals on the most popular products."

YankeeFan · Nov 25, 2011

Meanwhile, a Black Friday experience we can all support, at Goose Island's Brew Pub:

If it's Thanksgiving, it's time for one of Goose Island's newer traditions: Their own take on "Black Friday."

Last year, Goose Island sent beer geeks on a mad dash for Rare Bourbon County Stout. 260 people lined up outside Binny's Lincoln Park to be among the first to buy Rare BCS, which sold out in two hours.

This year, Goose Island Clybourn will be selling a wider range of beers. The Holy Grail among them: King Henry, a bourbon barrel aged barleywine that weighs in at 13.4 percent ABV.

King Henry is brewed with Pale, Caramel, Crystal Wheat and Dark Chocolate malts, and spiced with Pilgrim and Sturian hops. The bottle sent to us by Goose Island presented complex aromas of toffee, vanilla and oak, with smooth bourbon and malt on the palate. Drink it now if you must, but King Henry is a beer that's made to cellar.

King Henry will be selling for $25 a bottle when Goose Island Clybourn opens 10 a.m. Friday. There's a limit of three bottles per customer and the brewpub will also serve samples for $5. The brewpub will also have available for purchase cellared 2010 Bourbon County Stout (12-ounce bottles; $10/bottle; limit 4); cellared 2010 Bourbon County Vanilla Stout (650mL; $25/bottle; limit 2); cellared 2009 Pere Jacques (12-ounce bottles; $10/bottle; limit 4) and cellared 2005 Icarus barleywine (12-ounce bottles; $12/bottle; limit 4). Tickets for each beer will be handed out in line outside the brewpub, which will open Friday at 10 a.m. (We wonder if there's a line outside already?)

http://chicagoist.com/2011/11/23/goose_island_clybourn_preps_for_bla.php
Click to expand...

Michael_ Gee · Nov 25, 2011

People doing weird stuff is news. Black Friday is very weird. PS: Over at Mother Jones, blogger Kevin Drum has a post today with extensive evidence to support the contention that the origin of the phrase "Black Friday" had nothing to do with red-to-black ink, but was created by Philly cops and department store workers in the 1950s in reaction to the crowds they dealt with.

Herbert Anchovy · Nov 25, 2011

Check out your Facebook feed this morning. People are talking about this out the ass, and do every year.

Whether we like it or not, folks care about Black Friday.

TheSportsPredictor · Nov 25, 2011

It's a bigger story than the 103rd game of a typical Pittsburgh Pirates season.

outofplace · Nov 25, 2011

Herbert Anchovy said:

Check out your Facebook feed this morning. People are talking about this out the ass, and do every year.

Whether we like it or not, folks care about Black Friday.
Click to expand...

Exactly. No, it normally is not great journalism, but we should be telling people ahead of time when things will be opening nearby because they want to know. And we should be writing about it that day because readers will pay attention. Gotta feed the beast sometimes.

Stitch · Nov 25, 2011

You'd think local Patch editors wouldn't wait until morning to post Black Friday stories.

SF_Express · Nov 25, 2011

Nobody's going to win a Pulitzer for it.

It has to be covered. It involves a huge number of people doing something that affects business, traffic and general life for a day.

Let me simply reverse it on those who say it's lazy or whatever: We've got all this activity all over town right now. Are you really saying papers/websites should not cover it and go about their business pretending it doesn't exist?

Now THAT'S weird.

And finally, to those who said it didn't compare to a game, yes it does. The stories you get out of this day are no more predictable than the outcome of a game, if your reporters are any good at it.

MileHigh · Nov 25, 2011

Like this story in L.A.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/woman-pepper-sprays-shoppers-at-l-a-walmart/

Woman uses pepper spray while going around a Walmart to get the merchandise on her list first.

SF_Express · Nov 25, 2011

MileHigh said:

Like this story in L.A.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/woman-pepper-sprays-shoppers-at-l-a-walmart/

Woman uses pepper spray while going around a Walmart to get the merchandise on her list first.
Click to expand...

See! Who saw that coming?

Herbert Anchovy · Nov 25, 2011

I think one of these stories could win an award if someone went out there with the express intention of asking and finding out: Why exactly the fuck do you participate in this?

But that ain't happening. So tell whoever's doing it you just want to see a different lede than last year.

Log in or Sign up

Black Friday shopping stories are not news

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

Herbert Anchovy Active Member

TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

outofplace Well-Known Member

Stitch Active Member

SF_Express Active Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

SF_Express Active Member

Herbert Anchovy Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Black Friday shopping stories are not news

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

Herbert Anchovy Active Member

TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

outofplace Well-Known Member

Stitch Active Member

SF_Express Active Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

SF_Express Active Member

Herbert Anchovy Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches