Aeropostale advertises their early Black Friday sales at Broadway Square Mall in Tyler on Wednesday Nov. 22, 2017. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Tyler retailers spent Wednesday putting out the latest and greatest toys, games, clothing, makeup and their Black Friday deals.

Fingerlings, Nintendo Switch and Fenty Stunna Lip Paint are just a few of this year’s highly anticipated items shoppers are expected to buy during the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. 

Some shoppers already were breaking out their pocketbooks Wednesday as stores put the finishing touches on Black Friday displays.

“I’m in town from California visiting my family,” Rachel Faulkner of Redding, California, said. “I came in to check out the sales today.” 

Some Tyler stores are experiencing their first Black Friday event with customers coming in from surrounding East Texas communities.

H&M in The Village at Cumberland Park is one such store. The store opened less than a month ago.

“We hope to see lots of shoppers coming in for the best of holiday fashion,” said Patrick Shaner, media relations at H&M corporate offices. “We received such a warm welcome in Tyler. We are ready to provide the best for fans of H&M”

Justin Tucker, department manager at H&M, is not new to the Black Friday shopping experience, having worked it prior to coming to the store’s Tyler location.

He’s been working in Tyler since the store opened and anticipates a high volume of shoppers. He was busy assisting the staff putting up light boxes, setting up signs and setting out merchandise.

The crew planned to finish their set up Wednesday, stay home with their families on Thursday and open the doors to Black Friday customers at 6 a.m. Friday. 

At H&M, Autumn Ramirez was busy putting price tags on children’s clothing Wednesday. She has to be at the store at 5 a.m. for her first Black Friday experience as a retail associate. 

“It’s exciting, but I think it will be a lot of work,” she said. “It will be crazy.”

The store offers a 15 percent discount coupon for those who bring in three items of unwanted clothing. The clothes are reused and recycled through the company’s Together We Can Close the Loop garment collecting initiative. 

The Broadway Square Mall is another favorite for Black Friday shoppers in East Texas. 

Marketing Director Candace Foster said the mall is anticipating a higher volume of shoppers than last year.

She said the top five stores in the mall with some of the best deals will be J.C. Penney,Victoria’s Secret,Bed Bath & Beyond,Francesca’sand the Buckle. The mall will open its doors to shoppers at 6 p.m. Thursday.

J.C. Penney will open at 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. 

Jamie Apoderado, senior education consultant at Sephora, said she will be coming into the J.C.Penney at 1:30 p.m. Thursday and won’t leave until the store closes at 10:30 p.m. Friday.

“The secret is keeping busy, bringing food, drinking coffee and staying motivated,” she said. “The store has a lot of great deals and we will be spending the rest of Wednesday setting up display tables.”

The hottest trends in makeup are Fenty Stunna Lip Paint and the Huda Beauty collection, according to Apoderado. 

The store anticipates one of their best sellers to be a $39 Sephora Favorites Must Haves, a gift set makeup bag with various products. 

For those who are interested in electronics and entertainment, Game Stop will have some options.

The Nintendo Switch is anticipated to be this year’s game console of choice, according to GameStop Assistant Store Leader Hailey Kingery. 

“It’s a two-in-one system,” she said. “You can play games on it as you would a notebook or you can play them on the TV.” 

Loralea Ray, of Tyler, was at the counter of the store returning what she said is probably the only Nintendo Switch Mario Brothers Edition in town. She had purchased it for her son.

“It’s sold out everywhere,” she said “My parents got one for my son, so I’ll be using the money for games or other things.” 

Ray also said her daughter’s toy of choice this year the Hello Barbie, a Wi-Fi connected Barbie dollhouse that her daughter can control with her voice. 

“She watches You Tube Kids and saw it on there,” Ray said. “She can make the elevator go up and down and turn the stairs into a slide.” 

GameStop also will feature the highly sought after Fingerlings, a miniature baby monkey toy that can cling to a person’s fingers. The toy reacts to sound, motion and touch, make monkey noises. 

The mall also has received a lot of attention on social media for Dragon’s Breath. The liquid nitrogen frozen cereal snack dipped in caramel or chocolate is sold at a new food stand. There, mall-goers can try the snack and many of them are posting photographs of what appear to be puffs of smoke coming from their mouth and nose. 

“We came here just (to) get this,” 18-year-old Hannah Detwiler and 16-year-old Grace Brasher said. “We saw it on Snapchat and it was something we wanted to do.” 

THE NUMBERS

Black Friday is known to be a time consumers tend to benefit from competitive promotions in stores and online, according to the National Retail Federation. The promotions generally last the course of the weekend. 

About 69 percent of Americans – an estimated 164 million people are planning to shop or considering shopping during Thanksgiving weekend, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

The agency updated the survey to more accurately capture consumer behavior throughout the entire shopping weekend, Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. 

Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs, over 42 million working Americans and contributing $2.6 trillion to the economy, according to the National Retail Federation. 

Matt Wilson of The Retail Connection, which operates The Village at Cumberland Park said the shopping center has had it’s first tenant since 2014. This year the complex boasts over 60 tenants. Retail stores opening recently include, Bath and Body Works, H&M, Half Price Books, David’s Bridal and Starbucks. 

“Tenants are saying they have seen high numbers of customers this week,” Wilson said. “Starbucks has already double its sales from it’s opening week. David’s Bridal has seen double the amount of customers they saw at their old location.” 

This year the complex placed holiday decorations throughout the area instead of just putting up a tree, according to Wilson. There will be food truck vendors on site throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. 

SAFETY

The Tyler Police Department will have an increased patrol presence in shopping areas.

The department is urging the public to protect themselves by hiding their belongings and gifts from eyesight, either locking them in the trunk or covering them.

Every 2.5 minutes, a vehicle is burglarized in Texas with its contents stolen, according to police. These crimes escalate during this time of year when people are shopping and do not take the necessary precautions to protect personal items left in a vehicle. 

Police said auto burglars scout shopping malls and other large parking lots waiting for the opportunity to break into a vehicle. 

Within seconds, they can take a person’s items, their identity, and sometimes, their car. 

 

TWITTER: @LouAnnCampbell

 

 

 

A CLOSER LOOK

The Tyler Police Department offers these basic safety tips to motorists and shoppers to prevent wrecks and crimes from occurring during the holiday season.

• Do not follow too closely to the vehicle in front of you. Slow your vehicle speed down. Don’t run red lights and don’t drink and drive.

• Hide belongings and gifts from eyesight, lock them in the trunk or cover them.

• Lock your car, take the keys and be aware of your surroundings at all times. 

• Shoplifting doesn’t pay. It equals jail time, large fines and a criminal record.

• Be on the lookout for financial scams.