Sonoma County hits the stores for Black Friday

Thanksgiving may be the new official start of the holiday shopping season, but local retailers still were able to draw modest early morning crowds to their stores with Black Friday deals.

Dan Fallis wheeled a 50-inch TV and speaker system out of Best Buy on Santa Rosa Avenue shortly after the store’s 8 a.m. opening. It was the second flat-screen TV he’d purchased that morning.

“The timing was right and the deals were really good,” Fallis said as he added the TV to the 32-inch set he picked up at Wal-Mart earlier Friday morning. The home entertainment splurge was triggered by his family’s move to a new home in southwest Santa Rosa. Fallis said he spent $208 on the first TV and $499 on the second, which he said he’ll install in his bedroom. He figured he saved more than $400 off the regular prices he’d have paid before the sales.

“You get a new house, you need all new stuff, right?” Fallis said.

Best Buy opened at 8 a.m., two hours later than previous years because it opened at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, remaining open until 1 a.m. Friday.

The trend of more retailers opening earlier and earlier on the holiday - and in the case of Kmart, remaining open all day Thanksgiving - irked some shoppers, who say they’ll resist the steady creep of commercialism into their lives.

“I don’t like that one bit. It’s taking away from family time,” Julie O’Brien of Larkfield said at Best Buy.

She was accompanying her daughter as she checked out the deals on cellphones, which included $99 for an iPhone 6.

As she waited in line, O’Brien called it shameful for retailers to erode a family-oriented holiday with the promise of deep discounts.

“They don’t care. They’re massive corporations and it’s all about profits,” chimed in Vlad Vinarskiy of San Carlos as he stood nearby.

Vinarskiy was spending time at his family’s vacation home in Calistoga when the SIM card on his phone died, forcing him to head to Best Buy for a new one, he said.

The software engineer said he’s most amazed that people still are drawn to the “door busters” and other deals retailers are offering because those deep discounts are almost always on dated technology.

“There was a dude who was already camping out last week” at a Best Buy near his home in San Carlos, he said. “I don’t get it.”

But spending time with family is exactly what shopping after Thanksgiving is all about for Tiffany Hutchinson of Cotati and her mom and sister.

“We’re old pros,” Hutchinson said as she left Macy’s in downtown Santa Rosa about 7:15 a.m.

The trio started at the outlet mall in Petaluma at 9 p.m. Wednesday, shopped for a few hours, then headed home to take a nap before popping back out to Macy’s when it opened at 6 a.m.

While they’re willing to stay out late and get up early for a deal, Hutchinson said there weren’t any discounts this year that were steep enough to get them clamoring for must-have items.

“We don’t need to be first in line,” Hutchinson said.

Not all of the day’s activities were centered around shopping. In Rohnert Park, at least 80 people protested outside Wal-Mart as part of a nationwide effort to urge the nation’s largest retailer to improve worker pay, provide more full-time jobs and better opportunities for its female workforce. The demonstrators included members of the North Bay Jobs with Justice alliance, Unite Here Local 2850, the North Bay Labor Council and the Sonoma County chapter of the National Organization for Women. The coalition is opposing a planned expansion of the store that must be approved by the City Council, which is set to decide the issue in January.

The planned expansion would bring 80 additional part-time and full-time jobs. But opponents contend that Wal-Mart workers aren’t paid a living wage, which they contend should be at least $15 an hour, and are forced to rely on government-provided food stamps and Medi-Cal.

“Wal-Mart can create jobs, but it doesn’t create good jobs,” said Marty Bennett, co-chairman of North Bay Jobs for Justice. “You have to look at the cost of the jobs that Wal-Mart creates.”

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia disputed those claims and said that the company paid an average nationwide wage of $13 an hour for its store workers, adding that 300,000 out of its 1.3 million workers had been with the retailer for 10 years or more. She noted that 75 percent of those in store management started out in an entry-level position as an associate. Pay for those management positions ranges from $50,000 to $170,000 annually.

“There is a real opportunity at Wal-Mart to build a career,” Garcia said.

Staff Writer Bill Swindell contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.