How a Best Buy store manager will cope on Black Friday

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When the staff of a huge electronics store looks to the Black Friday shopping onslaught, there's no shortage of preparation.

Jordas Reyes has been busy planning for the holiday shopping weekend that starts on Thanksgiving. The general manager at the Best Buy store at Gulf Coast Town Center near Fort Myers, Fla., is preparing an electronics feast.

“What we do really well is the planning for the event,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re strategically placing the products in key areas. If customers come in with the ad, they’re going to find it easily.”

The store, which is open 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, then reopening at 8 a.m. Friday, has hired more seasonal staff than last year to handle the busy shopping time.

Televisions are always among the hottest sellers, Reyes said. To handle demand for its "doorbuster" deep-discount deals -- one is a Toshiba 49-inch 4K TV for $199.99, down from $449.99 -- the store will be handing out tickets two hours before opening so customers don't have to wait in line.

Anyone with a ticket will have three hours after the store opens to use it, so some people may wish to return a little bit after the opening to claim their deal.

“That’ll help alleviate all of that stress,” Reyes said.

It's easy to see why stores need to prepare.

About 59% of Americans — an estimated 137.4 million people — are planning to or considering shopping during Thanksgiving weekend, according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The numbers, which cover Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday plus Sunday, include both in-store and online shopping and are up from 58.7% or 135.8 million people last year.

More than half of consumers have already started making dents in their holiday gift lists, according to the annual mid-season survey released Monday by the NRF.

“Consumers are looking for great prices and promotions earlier than ever, and retailers answered that demand by offering Black Friday deals as soon as the day after Halloween,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay says.

Clothing and accessories remain the most popular gifts this year, given by 61% of shoppers; 56% will give gift cards. Nearly half of shoppers, 44%, will give books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games; 42% will give toys, 31% food or candy and 30% will give electronics.