Shoppers make Black Friday a family tradition

With their matching “Black Friday 2018” shirts, a mother-daughter duo carried on their new holiday shopping tradition, as many do each year.

Michele Short and Cheyavone Coomler shopped at the Greenwood Park Mall early Friday morning. They started the tradition last year as a way to make time for each other during their busy lives, they said.

“We’re best friends,” Short said. “She’s my mom, but she’s my best friend and we just like to spend time together.”

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The Greenwood Park Mall opened from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thanksgiving Day and then reopened again at 6 a.m. Friday.

David Dawson, director of marketing and business development at the mall, said the demand to open both days comes from the customers.

“We open our door on Thanksgiving at 5 p.m., and people were here. We open up at 6 a.m. and people are here,” he said. “It’s a fun time to see.”

Dawson said opening on both days doesn’t necessarily spread out the amount of shoppers each day and traffic seems to be up this year.

“It goes back to what the families’ traditions are,” he said. “Football, eating heavy and maybe some drinks that may prohibit people from going out on Thursday. So their game plan is to go out Friday morning.”

The deals aren’t all that draw the customers to shop, but years-old tradition of Black Friday shopping is what makes families come back each year.

In Shannon Sims’ family, all the girls get together and go shopping. They left at 4:30 p.m. yesterday and shopped into the morning, she said.

“I don’t even know if I need half the stuff I get,” Sims said. “I just like to come out and we do it every year.”

Dawson said the stores are good at accommodating for each tradition, whether it be shopping Thursday night or Friday morning. Many stores provide different deals over the course of the two days, such as Pandora Jewelry offering one discount until 10 a.m. and another the rest of the day, he said.

Black Friday is a sister-bonding trip for Chanel Short. Her family are Jehovah’s Witnesses, she said, so they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. That gave them time to shop both Thursday and Friday.

“It’s tradition for me and my sister to do it. We’ve been doing it since we were younger,” she said. “It’s just the experience altogether.”