Even more than a white Christmas, every retailer loves a green Thanksgiving weekend.
So consider the palpable panic that hit Chicago-area merchants like a blast of winter when they threw open their doors Friday morning.
Forget the forecasts by economic experts, financial consultants and fortune-telling bean counters. Come the day after Thanksgiving, the only forecast that matters is the one the weatherman delivers.
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“If it’s snowing real hard, it’s, `Oh no,’ ” said Marshall Field’s President Dan Skoda. “If it’s no accumulation, that’s actually kind of good. It sets the atmosphere.”
No wonder store owners seemed thankful that Friday’s snow turned out to be nothing more than a shop prop-no matter how early they start the holiday retail season, the day after Thanksgiving still ranks as the top shopping day of the year.
“The wind and snow created a slow start,” confided Russell Salzman, executive director of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association.
“About noon, bingo. It all broke loose.”
Following their best Christmas in five years, city and suburban stores reported a hectic start to this year’s seasonal buying blitz. Except for the south suburbs, where freezing rain washed some of Friday’s profits down the drain, activity was brisk everywhere.
Late Friday was still too early for many retailers to ring up exact figures. Some could only guess how well they were doing by counting parked cars instead of sales receipts.
Nonetheless, merchants were guardedly optimistic, noting that buyers seemed to be braking their lists and trimming them twice, going for more frugal purchases as opposed to big-ticket items.
“A lot of things have changed since the ’80s,” Skoda said. “The world is getting more casual. People aren’t getting as dressed up as they used to. People aren’t as willing to go into debt as in the past.”
Try telling that to Jack McDevitt, regional manager for the Bailey, Banks & Biddle jewelry store chain.
“Traffic is real good,” McDevitt said Friday. “The malls have had traffic all day. And people are buying.”
Still, McDevitt said it was too early to predict how the chain, a unit of Dallas-based Zale Co., which emerged last summer from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, will do this Christmas.
After this weekend, he may have a much better idea. The three days after Thanksgiving traditionally mark the kickoff for serious holiday shopping.
Or as Oak Lawn resident Carole Chuffo put it, “I’ve resisted all pre-pre-Christmas sales.”
Chuffo, who was cruising the aisles at the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street, expressed a popular sentiment: There’s something reassuring about starting the shopping after finishing the turkey (leftovers aside, please).
As the heaviest shopping day of the year, Thanksgiving Friday traces its origins as far back as the 1920s, when the day after Thanksgiving first became a day off for working people.
Through the 1940s, many stores were closed on weekends, forcing people to shop during the week. The day after Thanksgiving provided the only opportunity for many to visit some of the larger stores.
Marshall Field’s was never open on Saturdays or Sundays. Curtains were drawn across first-floor display windows to emphasize that reality to curious customers.
Field’s personnel said the Saturday closing policy was abandoned before 1950. The State Street Field’s continued to adhere to Sunday closings until two months ago. The chain never enacted a weekend closing policy when it opened its first suburban stores.
Then again, the suburbs attract a different kind of shopper: The Mall Maven.
Retail experts predicted that more city dwellers would take the trip to malls for their holiday buying this year. If Friday’s traffic was any indication, the Great Mall Rush of ’93 is on.
Ushanda Goodloe, a 23-year-old North Sider, said she prefers the mega-mall at Gurnee Mills in Lake County to the city shops because “it’s so huge and glamorous.”
Goodloe, who brought several friends and her 2-year-old daughter along, forgot one item: a tent.
“We left before it was even light outside and got here at 8 a.m. We might be here until it closes,” she said.
“We’re shopaholics,” she added, as if her shopping schedule didn’t make that clear. “I love shopping.”
Between 30,000 to 50,000 people were expected at Gurnee Mills on Friday, its management said.
At the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, consumers swarmed in from all corners of the Chicago metro area.
Woodfield general manager Jim Linowski said parking lots were at 90 percent capacity Friday afternoon, up slightly from the year before.
“Consumer optimism is high right now,” Linowski said. “There’s a lot of good things going on with the economy.”
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For the first time in 10 years, Duard Ballard of Sylvania, Ohio, and his family shopped on Thanksgiving weekend in the suburbs instead of on Michigan Avenue.
“We thought it might be less crowded,” said Ballard, who accompanied his wife and daughter to Oakbrook Center in Du Page County. “Also, there’s a Nordstrom’s store and Abercrombie & Fitch’s here and not downtown.”
Not that their defection hurt Magnificent Mile merchants.
Many stores reported increases of less than 10 percent over last year’s sales, “with a couple of stores reporting double-digit increases,” Salzman said late Friday afternoon.
Salzman said he believes the surge is coming from out-of-town buyers.
“You can’t get a hotel room anywhere this weekend,” he said. “And those people have one item on the top of their list: Shopping.”
Such scenes showed a marked contrast to the lack of activity in the south suburbs.
Crowds were relatively sparse at Lincoln Mall in Matteson, and parking lots generally were much less than half-full across the area. Persistent cold rain played a major role in keeping down the crowds.
“I can’t believe how easy it is to get to the registers, and there’s a good sale going on too,” said Winnie Sippel, who came from Kankakee expecting to brave long lines.
If Sippel couldn’t find the ultimate gift for her married daughter, at least she could sample some new-fangled ways of shopping the stores.
This year, stores are using “personal shoppers” to coax customers. Taking a nod from Santa, people are enlisting these elves to grapple with crowded malls, jammed lines and parking snarls. Clients range from overworked yuppies to overwhelmed gift-givers.
While stores such as FAO Schwarz at 840 N. Michigan Ave. provide the service, other personal shoppers work independently, charging $20 to $50 an hour plus the cost of the gifts.
Still, it’s just not as much fun for some as another holiday tradition: Do-it-yourself shopping.
“The bigger the crowd, the more exciting it is,” observed Shirley Johnson, 50, of Naperville, who was shopping Woodfield Mall with her son and daughter-in-law. “I’m strange that way. It puts me in the holiday spirit.”