RETAIL
Still keying on ‘black friday,’ merchants unfurl their sales
After weeks of plugging inviting discounts, retailers are set for prime time: Black Friday, the bargain bonanza that still reigns as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season even if it’s lost some luster. Department stores, shopping malls, and merchants — big and small — see the day after Thanksgiving as a way to energize shoppers and get them into physical stores at a time when many gift-seekers are content to do their browsing online. There are enough traditionalists that Black Friday remains the biggest day of the year for retail foot traffic. “I’m excited about it,’’ Emily Phillips said while visiting the Galleria Dallas last week. “I save up all the things that I want all year and usually try and get them around Black Friday. I prefer to shop in person because then I can try stuff on. It’s a better experience.’’ In the United States, analysts envision a solid holiday shopping season, though perhaps not as robust as last year’s, with many shoppers under financial pressure and cautious with their discretionary spending despite the easing of inflation. Retailers will be even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn., is giving the first 200 people in line at its north entrance a $25 gift card. Target is offering an exclusive book devoted to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and a bonus edition of her “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’’ album that only will be available in stores on Black Friday before customers can buy them online Saturday. “(Stores) are very hungry for Black Friday to do well,’’ Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at market research firm Circana, said. “They recognize that they’re not going to clobber and win big growth in online because the pie has gotten so competitive. They have to find a way to win in the stores.’’ Associated Press
MUSIC
Feds unplug counterfeit ring with largest seizure of fake gibson guitars
At a glance, the Gibson guitars look like some of the most coveted six-stringed instruments in the world, including signature models played by Dave Grohl that sell for up to $10,000 and some that looked as if they had been autographed by Slash. A closer look by any guitar connoisseur, though, would reveal something was slightly off. Federal officials aren’t saying how they knew the difference, but the 3,000 electric guitars that arrived in ocean containers from Asia at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport were counterfeit. Their total retail price, had they been genuine, would have been $18 million, they said. The haul is the largest seizure of counterfeit musical instruments on record, officials said in announcing the bust on Tuesday. “These fraudulent guitars may look and feel legitimate for unsuspecting consumers buying them from third-party online sources, street markets, unauthorized retailers, and person-to-person transactions,’’ said Cheryl M. Davies, the director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in Los Angeles. The biggest tipoff, though, might have been that authentic Gibson guitars are made only in Nashville and Bozeman, Mont. New York Times
