Black Friday

As holiday shopping begins, retailers’ prospects are not looking so bright. Where should you shop?

(Nov. 26, 2008) They call it Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the best days of the year for retail — it’s the day that heralds the start of the all-important holiday shopping season; only the Saturday before Christmas surpasses it in overall sales. Retailers everywhere are hoping you’ll come to their business to find that perfect gift.

Expect Friday’s newspaper to be chock-a-block with inserts from various chain stores enticing you with doorbuster sales and gift-giving ideas, pitches festooned with images of holly garlands, Christmas trees and wrapped presents.

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But Black Friday also sounds kind of ominous, echoing Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression — still, the day is considered all-important for retailers, with some hoping they’ll shift from operating in the red to the black.

Of course the push for holiday shopping is already underway. In mid-November Sears and K-Mart both advertised “Black Friday prices now!” Arcata Main Street’s “Earlier than the Bird” promotion was last Saturday; Henderson Center brought Santa in for its holiday kick-off last Thursday. And yes, the Journal started its string of holiday gift guides last week.

Pretty much every local business organization is mounting its own campaign. The Arcata Chamber of Commerce asks you to “Shop Locally, Shop Arcata First.” Fortuna and Eureka would also like to see you in their business districts.

In the midst of all this, a nascent group called the Humboldt County Independent Business Alliance is signing up members, pulling together a directory of locally-based businesses and asking people to pledge to conduct 25 to 100 percent of their shopping at locally owned and operated businesses. The organizers see chain stores, big boxes and corporate malls as a negative influence. They don’t want more of them in the community and would like to see the existing ones go away.

The irony is, for the most part the big boys are already failing. After years of unrestrained growth, just about any major retailer you can name is in trouble — with the notable exception of Wal-Mart.

Borders, the archenemy of every indie bookseller, put itself up for sale earlier this year. Sears and Kmart joined forces a few years back to protect themselves from Wal-Mart; they’re still in trouble. Look at the stock price chart for Target, Gottschalks, Bed Bath and Beyond, and other chain retailers and you’ll see they’re all in deep downward slides.

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SIX Comments

Comment / By hal g / Nov. 28, 2008, 8:29 p.m.

More of a question than a comment really: Obviously shopping at places fulling owned locally is good locally, but what about franchises? Is it good for the local economy if we shop at Ace Hardware, Do-It-Better, Subway, McDonald’s or Porter Street?

Comment / By Scott Menzies / Nov. 29, 2008, 11:26 a.m.

Your question raises a point that is often the source of confusion for folks wishing to support their local economies as much as possible: What is ‘local’? Local is, really, too vague. What’s important is to shop ‘independent,’ and that does not include franchises like Subway or McDonald’s, whose headquarters are not local and whom are unable to make virtually any independent decisions. If Porter Street has less than six outlets and is headquartered locally, it might qualify as independent for us (at HumIBA). We’d have to look more closely (there’s always gray area). As for Ace Hardwares, they’re buying cooperatives, not franchises, so they qualify as independent. They have a lot of independence in terms of how they run their business (Pierson’s sells Ace, as well as other brands, for example). Do-It-Best I’m guessing would be similar to Ace, but I don’t know for sure. Feel free to write me at scott ‘at’ humiba.org if you have any more questions.

Comment / By menza man / Nov. 29, 2008, 7:48 p.m.

Although a generally good article, keep in mind that at least a third of the businesses in Bayshore Mall are local ones, in particular the “kiosk” businesses. Also, ALL of the employees at the Mall are local citizens. So it’s simply not true that “ALL” of your money goes out of the County when you shop at Bayshore.

Comment / By Rad / Nov. 30, 2008, 12:11 p.m.

Why isn’t the HumIBA run by the small businesses which constitute it, as the local Chambers of Commerce are?

Is the Journal ever going to ask some real quesitons about David Cobb and Democracy Unlimited’s money-grubbing schemes which are anything but democratic?

Comment / By Pathways Trading Co. / Dec. 2, 2008, 10:50 a.m.

You can find an eclectic mix of affordable and fair trade gifts at the Bayshore Malls new store “Schatzi’s Hidden Treasures”. From local crafts to socially responsible village imports here you can support a variety of independent local businesses.

Comment / By eed / Dec. 16, 2008, 10:46 a.m.

I have been in the county since before the BS Mall. When they first opened they tried to be the community center. At Christmas time there were carolors and temperary Christmastime booths. There was even a place to get presents gift wrapped! Now days it is pretty quiet in there.