WHAT'S SO BLACK ABOUT BLACK FRIDAY?

posted by Michael Chihak

Modest gains in traditional retail sales for Arizona merchants may be enough to push them into the black. Modest means the 2-5 percent range, compared with a 5.2 percent gain in 2010.

Meanwhile, some sources are predicting double-digit percentage gains for online retailers. The Economist magazine reports in its current edition that online sales may make up as much as one-third of the country's retail purchases this holiday season.

That bodes ill for brick-and-mortar operations such as shopping malls and stand-alone small businesses. But many of them, big and small, are adapting, offering improved services, strategic discounts and, yes, even online shopping.

It's all to survive and thrive in a splintered merchandising world, says the head of the Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing at the University of Arizona.

Retailing center Director Martha Van Gelder says consumers are saying,. "I want it when I want it, where I want it, and I want it fast. So the retailers have had to invest a lot of money and a lot of marketing strategy in terms of how to address that."

See and hear more of Van Gelder's interview and conversations with five others with interests in the holiday shopping season on Friday's Arizona Week. The program will air at 8:30 p.m. MST on the PBS World channel.