ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – The calendar just recently flipped over to November, but most stores have had their eyes set on the day-after-Thanksgiving for quite some time.
Christmas is coming soon and most box stores in the area are doing their best to keep holiday shopping at the front of everyone’s mind.
At J.C. Penney in Ashwaubenon, they’re already stocking up.
“We’ve been getting shipments for the last several weeks,” says Mike Grant, J.C. Penney general manager. “We get three trucks a week, two of the three trucks a week is a full semi load and that’s mostly Black Friday holiday merchandise.”
All that merchandise means more people in the stores, which requires additional staff throughout the store.
“Our plan was to hire about 45 people,” explains Grant. “We’ve hired about 25, so about another 20 people.”
The first 25 hired employees will be permanent, while they are searching for an additional 20 seasonal workers.
Perhaps the most obvious sign of Black Friday’s arrival is online, where store ads can be seen all over.
“There’s a lot of Black Friday items we have available online only,” explains Jim DePaul, Shopko chief operating officer. “Sort of a sneak-peek.”
With all this preparation, just how much money is spent over the holidays?
According to a National Retail Federation survey, shoppers said last year that they expected to spend $967.13 during the holiday season.
That number might seem high, but it actually could be trending upward this year.
“Everything in the economy points to people willing to spend a little bit more,” says DePaul.
And experts agree. They are anticipating holiday spending to increase by around 4.1 percent this year.
DePaul says that Shopko plans to begin their in-person Black Friday sale at 2 PM.
