PANAMA CITY BEACH — The warm sunshine and a chilly breeze paired nicely for open-air shopping at Pier Park by midday on Black Friday.
“We definitely had good traffic right away with people coming out for the early deals this morning,” said Michael Kerrigan, director of marketing and business development at Pier Park, which was closed for “Black Thursday” but opened early for Black Friday.
Kerrigan arrived at 5 a.m. to see a steady flow of shoppers trickling into the shopping center. Lines had formed outside several stores for doorbuster deals on clothing, electronics and other hot holiday items.
“I don’t think this year was a major shift from the past couple of years,” he said.
Kerrigan said Pier Park received the usual onslaught of local shoppers and those from the drive-in market of Northwest Florida and South Alabama when most stores opened at 6 a.m.
Thanksgiving seemed to already be a distant memory as families enjoyed hours of bonding and browsing fueled by a Starbucks caffeine boost.
The upscale lifestyle center, as Pier Park often is called, had the holiday feel.
“We have quite a bit of Christmas décor up and holiday music playing throughout the center,” Kerrigan said.
He said the Simon Malls-owned property prepared for the rush of shoppers by communicating holiday deals and hours to customers by the usual channels before Black Friday arrived and made sure the center was prepared with extra security and housekeeping to handle the traffic.
“It can be a stressful day, so we try to make it as pleasant as possible,” Kerrigan said.
Tame Black Friday
By most accounts, shoppers were pretty tame this year at the mall in Panama City on Thursday night and at Pier Park on Panama City Beach on Black Friday.
“In Atlanta, I would stand in line for an hour-and-a-half at Kohl’s,” said Ashley Carlile. “We did it every year, but not here since I don’t have my girlfriends.”
Since moving to Panama City Beach, Carlile hasn’t had the peer pressure to boost her holiday shopping. She quickly made her rounds in Charming Charlie to find gifts for nieces and nephews.
“These are presents for her cousins and best friend,” Carlile said of the haul her daughter, Jaley, was carrying. “We’re going to have to ship a lot of it to Atlanta, so we make a lot of decisions based on that, too. It’s not cheap.”
Carlile said she wasn’t a fan of standing in checkout lines snaked around the racks in the stores — unless it’s a “knock-me-dead deal.”
“I’m trying to just tag as many people off my list as possible,” Carlile said. “I’ve never really been burned by online shopping, but I usually want to see it and feel it before I buy it.”
Although Carlile didn’t feel prompted to shop late on Thanksgiving night or in the wee hours of Friday morning, plenty of others did.
Meagan Ramsey, 20, said she clocked in at Dick’s Sporting Goods at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving after turkey and time with her family. The business law student at Gulf Coast State College said she was well-inundated with the Black Friday madness since she’s worked retail in Pier Park since she was 15.
Between a part-time gig at Dick’s and kiddie boutique Andi’s at the Pier, she gets plenty of hours during the holidays.
“It’s fun if you have the right mindset for it,” she said. “I love my paychecks when I have overtime, so I’m all for the extra hours.”
The motivation to earn extra holiday cash and a positive attitude go a long way to get her through the hustle and bustle of the holidays, especially when she pulls nearly 24 hours of time on the clock on Thanksgiving and Black Friday combined.
“Some people don’t like it because of the attitudes of the shoppers,” she said. “But you’re at your job. You just smile. What else are you going to do?”
For Ramsey, feeding on the crazy energy of customers makes her job enjoyable. She said shoppers have been extra warm-hearted this year with giving to charitable causes at the cash register, and she’s enjoyed helping parents try to get everything on their children’s wishlist within budget.
“They’re just trying to have fun and do it all in a day,” Ramsey said.