Black Friday holiday shopping in Sonoma County hardly a rush amid pandemic

Black Friday this year hardly resembled the frenzied shopping spectacle of past seasons.

The round-the-block lines and crowded sales floors customers have come to expect the early morning after Thanksgiving — the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season — were mostly absent Friday as the coronavirus pandemic appeared to convince many people to stay home.

Big-box stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart still offered “doorbuster” deals on a range of hot-ticket items. But many of those retailers also limited the number of shoppers inside stores and provided curbside pickup in an effort to discourage large crowds and allow for social distancing.

While Sonoma County residents appeared to largely sit out at least Black Friday morning shopping, two items people did line up for in the cold were the new Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 video game consoles.

Chris Tate was the first in line at GameStop in Windsor to snag the latest PlayStation. Fueled on energy drinks, he had been camped out in front of the video game retailer since 7 a.m. Thursday morning, a full 24 hours before the store opened on Friday.

“This is mine,” Tate said when asked for whom he bought the console. “I’m not waiting outside for nobody else.”

Prior to this holiday season, annual retail sales on Black Friday already were in decline for years, thanks in large part to the growing popularity of online shopping. The pandemic is expected to accelerate that trend as retailers this year have begun offering more online deals even earlier in 2020.

And despite high unemployment rates throughout much of the country, total holiday sales this November and December are forecast to increase 3.6% to 5.2% compared to 4% last year, to as much as $766.7 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

Online sales are expected to jump by 30% during the holiday season compared with a year ago, according to the retail federation. On Thanksgiving Day alone, consumers went on a buying spree, spending $5.1 billion on online purchases, up from $4.2 billion last year on the holiday, Adobe Analytics said Friday.

“Consumers have experienced a difficult year, but will likely spend more than anyone would have expected just a few months ago,” Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist with the National Retail Federation, said in a statement.

Outside the Target at the Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa, about 40 shoppers gathered patiently before the store opened at 7 a.m. Vanessa Alvarado, like many of those waiting out front, was there in hopes of picking up a new PlayStation. She dashed to the Target after being told Best Buy was only selling the video game console online and the GameStop in Santa Rosa had just two in stock.

A first-time Black Friday shopper, Alvarado initially was concerned about braving the normally busy shopping day, but was comforted to see most people in masks and keeping their distance. She said it was worth the risk to make sure she fulfilled her 11-year-old son’s Christmas list.

“I’ll get in and get out, just like I do when I go grocery shopping,” Alvarado said.

Meanwhile, at the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets, it was a conspicuously calm, almost a mellow Black Friday scene. By 9 a.m., the parking lot looked roughly half full. Many stores, including Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic, had no line.

Posted beside the giant stuffed bear that stands — sits, actually — sentinel outside Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, a security guard sipping coffee confirmed the number of people at the mall was down considerably from Black Friday morning in 2019. “But there are still some people here," he said.

In downtown Petaluma, Sierra Harlan swept leaves from the sidewalk in front of Sonoma Cutlery, where she is assistant manager. While the shop offers generous Black Friday deals, she said — especially on its block sets of knives — management didn’t see the need to open early.

The store can’t afford the deep discounts offered by some national retailers, said her boss, manager Helen Porter. Once shoppers had been to those establishments, and were less “desperate,” they would make their way to her shop on Kentucky Street. “When we get really busy,” Porter said, “is about two weeks before Christmas.”

“Although this year,” Harlan said, “who knows what’s going to happen.”

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian