Part 2 - A Shopper Marketer's View On Thursday's Early Start To Black Friday

Key Lessons From Black Thursday Midnight Openings at

Walmart, Target and Best Buy

What Worked:

• Holiday spirit was present as most shoppers were courteous and friendly to each other even when lines got long and product ran out.  At Target, shoppers talked peacefully to help work out who was next in line at intersections of aisles.
• Target's and Best Buy's choice to open the store at midnight without pre-shopping hours ensured true doorbuster opportunities for shoppers.  Those who waited in line to be there early were satisfied.
• Best Buy handed tickets to shoppers wanting the hottest doorbusters who then picked them up after paying.
• Target was well stocked.  Discounted videos, a hot item in all stores, were plentiful.
• Walmart had a map identifying where the hottest specials were located.
• Registered worked and staff was well trained at all stores.
• Specials were clearly marked.
• Shoppers picked up impulse items off aisle displays as they waited in line.  Even items discarded in a bin by one shopper were often picked up by another shopper behind them in line.
• Stores were packed and the registers rang--at least for the first couple hours.

What Can Be Improved:

• Walmart allowing pre-shopping hours resulting in doorbusters being gone by the official start time--waiting in carts across the store.  The early birds stole the worms in this case.  They also took every cart so there was not a single free cart, in the store or parking lot, at 10:00PM.  Opening the store at 10:00 would have worked smoother.
• Walmart did not have enough inventory in store to satisfy demand for many of their specials.
• At both Walmart and Target, many of the special items were not located in the department for those items causing shoppers to have to go hunting for where to find an item.  This caused frustration and more traffic in the aisles.
• Target had product packed too tight in many departments making it difficult to impossible to get a cart in that space for shopping.
• Target had trouble handling the hundreds of shoppers who were trying to get to the checkout at the same time.
• Checkout lines at Target quickly made it impossible for many shoppers to continue to shop.  It was difficult to cross the store and it became evident that the longer one shopped, the later you would be waiting to check out.  By 12:40, most shoppers were in line to check out.
• Departments without specials were often ignored at Walmart and Target.  The midnight shopper picked up the advertised items first and added a few additional items.  The building lines appeared to limit shopping.  Several in line commented that they did not pursue their entire shopping list to avoid being there all night.  These shoppers might end up buying those items in another store.
• Shoppers coming to these 3 stores early this morning to start their Black Friday shopping will be disappointed.  The specials were mostly gone.  Hopefully the stores were picked up in the middle of the night so shoppers would find a clean store this morning.

This can be a big year for retailers if they put themselves in the minds of their shoppers.  Take actions to not only make it easy to shop your stores and buy products, but to also delight shoppers with their shopping experience.  You can build loyal shoppers this holiday season if you do it right.