At 2:30 in the morning on Black Friday, Jay Lisby was already at work watching the line of customers quickly grow to stretch across the entire parking lot.
The Best Buy customer solutions manager knew that as soon as the doors opened, eager customers would immediately sprint in to claim heavily discounted laptops, DVDs and gaming consoles as their own.
However, like many retailers in Westwood and the nation, he was unsure if the economic downturn would decrease people’s spending on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Instead, sales totals barely changed from last year. Nationally, Black Friday sales this year went up only half of 1 percent from last year’s Black Friday.
“I think (the increase) shows some signs of improvement over last year, but it’s too complicated to make predictions for the rest of the year,” said Wendy Liu, an assistant professor of marketing at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. “We can’t read much more into the figures.”
Stores often use Black Friday revenues as an indicator of sales during the holiday shopping period.
“Obviously retailers would have wanted to see a bigger (rise) in sales, but it all comes down to whether they saw an increase over the past year,” said Suzanne Shu, an assistant professor of marketing at the Anderson School. “Black Friday refers to stores turning a profit, or going into the “˜black,’ by the end of the day, so that’s what people are hoping for.”
Many shops promoted larger-than-usual sales to invite customers in. American Apparel, for example, conducted its first Black Friday sale since the company’s inception. Brandy & Melville, a Westwood clothing retailer, advertised 20 percent off all store merchandise.
Although Westwood retailers did not divulge specific sales figures, several said traffic appeared typical for Black Friday.
“I expected the store to be busy and crowded with lots of customers, but I couldn’t be sure at the time how the day would turn out,” Lisby said. “It turned out to be a normal, Black Friday-like shopping frenzy.”
Other Westwood retailers reported similar trends, stating that their revenues did not change between 2008 and 2009.
However, several stores also claimed increased sales compared to 2008.
Kaitlyn, a clothing boutique catering to young women, experienced a profitable Black Friday, according to sales associate Jocelyn Bustamante.
“We set a goal that was double that of last year’s goal for Black Friday, and we passed it,” Bustamante said. “People don’t want to spend too much money, and compared to other boutiques in Westwood, our prices are pretty reasonable.”
The only new advertising Kaitlyn employed this year was the placement of balloons and a sign on the sidewalk announcing the discounts inside.
Customers think the worst is behind them, so they are more confident and willing to spend greater amounts of money, Shu said. She added that customers are also shopping more wisely.
Sarah Pitzen, a sales associate at Brandy & Melville, said customers were looking to buy quality items over impulse pieces.
“One girl tried on a black dress that she could only wear once, so she bought a cheaper, more sensible item instead,” Pitzen said.
Many customers were wary of spending more on larger commodities than they were on clothing and other items with lower price tags.
“I didn’t need a big flat screen (television) or anything like that,” said Katie Thure, a first-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student. “I just went in to the (clothing) stores, knew what I wanted and walked out.”
Thure also had her doubts about whether or not people would spend as much money during Black Friday as they did in past years.
“I didn’t think people were going to buy as much as they used to because of the recession,” she said. “But America is all about buying things you don’t need.”
At Best Buy, the items that sold out the fastest were DVDs, Blu-ray discs, laptops discounted to less than $200 and other smaller items. Larger, more expensive items like televisions stayed on the shelves a while longer, Lisby said.
Even with the national summer slump in retail sales, many stores in Westwood have reported stable sales since the beginning of June. UCLA students may have left for the summer, but local families and summer students helped stores stay in business.
“Before UCLA students moved in for fall quarter, we catered to international tourists who came to look at the school and the area,” said Joshua Villanueva, a manager at American Apparel.
Urban Outfitters, a popular Westwood destination, also reported consistent sales over the year due to traffic from families in the neighboring areas of Los Angeles, according to store manager Erin Anderson.
“A lot of families come in to buy things for their kids, so a lot of the time, our customers are not UCLA students,” Anderson said.
This was the case during Black Friday as well, as many UCLA students left campus for the long weekend.
Consumers saw Black Friday as an excuse to shop for goods they deprived themselves of for the past six months, Shu said.
However, Lisby called West Los Angeles a retail anomaly due to its economic prosperity.
“If this was another Best Buy store, I would probably have a different Black Friday story, but people (in West Los Angeles) have a good amount of money to spend, so we did well,” Lisby said.
While many Westwood retailers may have experienced a successful Black Friday, they are unsure of how their sales to students will be in the future.
“A lot of students are thinking about how they are going to pay for their tuition after the fee hikes instead of when they are going to buy the new technology items,” Lisby said. “It doesn’t matter if these are absolutely necessary school supplies or not.”
Whether catering to college students or other demographics, retailers know that future sales figures rest greatly upon the attitude of the customer, Shu said.
“It all depends on whether people feel like they are getting the best deals on what they want,” Shu said. “In these times, every dollar matters a lot more.”