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Printer-Friendly ModeMid-Michigan retailers hit slump
December 3, 2007 —
Some mid-Michigan retailers report they have witnessed a slump in profits over the Thanksgiving weekend.
This is different from the rest of the country according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, which says most other areas throughout the United States experienced a significant increase in sales.
For instance, the weekend's sales didn't fair well for the Meijer on Eastman Road in Midland. Matthew Arnold, a sales clerk specializing in the toy department, said that after the Black Friday morning sale, there was a surprising amount of merchandise leftover.
"I would say we were not as busy as we have been in years past," Arnold said.
Included in the Eastman Road Meijer's Black Friday sale were "Door Buster Deals" which were available from 5am to 12pm. Among the items that sold well were Meijer brand MP3 players and Nintedo Wii Entertainment Systems. However, Arnold said that other popular gift items such as the X-Box 360 and SD memory cards did not sell as well as anticipated.
This day is called Black Friday because businessmen mark profits in their books with black ink and losses with red ink. This day is regarded by retailers as one of the most profitable days of the fiscal year.
Arnold said one of the reasons why the store may have had low traffic over the Thanksgiving weekend was due to the competition of a Best Buy and a Wal-Mart, both located within the same plaza as Meijer. He remained optimistic, however, that sales at his store would increase before Christmas. He said that the busiest shopping day of the year isn't Black Friday during the Thanksgiving weekend, but the last Saturday before every Christmas.
"It's because of the influx of people that waited so long," Arnold said.
Richard Burr III is a Saginaw resident and employee at the Kroger grocery store on Dixie Highway, a location that sells everything from discount DVDs to holiday foods. Burr said sales at his location over the Thanksgiving weekend were up only slightly from the previous year, citing figures that, according to Burr, are not worthy of cheering about.
"Kroger's overall store sales for 2007 showed a two percent increase versus the 2006 sales," Burr said.
Burr also mentioned any increase in sales had almost everything to do with the Dixie Highway location.
"Due to demographics, Kroger on Dixie has no direct competition from larger super centers like Meijer or Wal-Mart," he said. "Our store is actually the only big name grocery store on the east side of the city of Saginaw."
Some holiday shoppers, however, avoid the Thanksgiving weekend rush altogether by shopping on the Internet at Web sites like amazon.com. Rachel Foss, a student at Central Michigan University majoring in broadcast and cinematic arts, is one such shopper.
"I like to shop at amazon.com because I can find exactly what I need at a very low price," Foss said. "This is very useful because I live in a very small town and I have a limited selection in our stores."
Foss also said the reason why a lot of mid-Michigan retailers such as Meijer didn't do as well over Thanksgiving weekend is due to international businesses that take profits from regional retailers.
"I think that local retailers lose a lot of business," Foss said. "Not only to online retail but also to giant corporate [expletive] such as Wal-Mart."