Black Friday brings millions to malls, outlets

Rather than taking business away from each other, new area outlets complemented the malls to serve an increased number of shoppers this year on Black Friday.

Tanger Outlets, which launched in Mebane Nov. 5, gave shoppers another choice on Black Friday, opening on midnight after Thanksgiving.

But they didn’t affect local malls’ holiday shopping traffic, said Kathleen Hackshaw, general manager of North Carolina Piedmont Tanger Outlet Center, after meeting with local mall general managers. She also said more people came out to shop this year than last year in North Carolina.

According to the Black Friday weekend survey by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation, 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites during Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. The average shopper’s spending increased to about $365 from about $343.

Hackshaw met with the general managers of Durham’s The Streets at Southpoint and Raleigh’s Crabtree Valley Mall about a week ago. Both managers said Tanger’s opening hasn’t affected their traffic so far, she said.

“It’s a different kind of shopping,” Hackshaw said.

Hackshaw said the outlets and regional malls serve different purposes — people go to outlets looking for the most efficient shopping, but many people go to malls because of their restaurants, movie theaters and services for children. Deal seekers ran in the Tanger Outlets and targeted their favorite stores to get the best deals.

“They came in at midnight, and they power shop,” said Hackshaw, who has been a manager of malls or outlets for about 10 years.

Hackshaw said after restricting spending in recent years, many people missed Christmas shopping.

“I would say this year is better retail-wise,” she said.

Shane Fisher of Graham said he arrived at Tanger Outlets around 8 a.m. Friday. He was excited to shop at the outlets, he said, because most years he goes to Southpoint or drives to Charlotte for deals.

“Because there is no food and no movie theaters, there’s less kids, which is what we like,” Fisher said. “We don’t mind kids, but we don’t like to have a mall as a babysitter.”

Tanger calmed down after a packed midnight opening, and some of the traffic moved to Southpoint when many stores opened at 6 a.m. Friday. Abercrombie & Fitch offered a free $50 gift card for every $100 spent during their first few hours open.

“It has been crazy,” said Tammy Hodge, Southpoint’s Abercrombie & Fitch store manager, who has been a company employee for three years. “Business is a lot different from last year. Last year we only did $37,000 in the entire day.

“We were at $37,000 at about 3 p.m. (Friday).”

Marlynn Jones, a 1984 UNC alumna from Durham, waited in line around Southpoint’s Christmas tree to get her daughter’s picture with Santa Claus. She said malls are much easier for her than outlets, in part because she already has credit cards at two of the mall’s department stores.

“(My daughter) likes the playground. So, we shop a little while, and she plays for a while,” Jones said. “We get to eat at the food court, get to see the Santa Claus and get to do it all in one place.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.