Sears Reports Thanksgiving, Black Friday Trends And Insights

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sears SHOP YOUR WAY℠ Rewards Members and customers took advantage of more flexible shopping options to get doorbuster savings this Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

Black Friday kicked off five days early for Sears SHOP YOUR WAY Rewards Members who were able to purchase many Sears doorbusters in advance. More than half of Sears business comes from SHOP YOUR WAY Rewards – a free, members-only program and shopping community that offers rewards, personalized deals and services like e-coupons and e-receipts for faster returns and exchanges in five minutes or less, guaranteed.

Sears will continue to offer savings throughout the weekend on top brands and exclusive items that make great gifts. Highlights from today's Black Friday activity include:

Extended hours feedback

• Sears opened its doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving and is staying open 26 hours straight through Black Friday. The new Thanksgiving opening time received very positive feedback from customers across the country.
• Customers in many locations started lining up Thanksgiving morning, with some lined up as early as Monday to access the more than 1,000 doorbuster deals that were available until 1 p.m. (local time) on Friday, Nov. 23.
• Stores reported customers lined up by the hundreds in advance and some locations reported more than 1,000 customers in line. Overall, shoppers were in good spirits and happy to enjoy easy parking and an orderly system in place to handle the doorbusters.
• Traffic was additionally brisk on Black Friday morning when Sears' second wave of doorbusters launched at 4 a.m.
• A big trend this year has been customers buying doorbusters online and picking up in-store both on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. In fact, Sears recently reported that in Q3, approximately half of online sales came through multichannel transactions such as buy online, pick-up in store.

Hottest selling gifts

• Consumer electronics doorbusters were extremely popular, especially the advertised $97 32" HDTV, Samsung® 55" 3D slim LED Smart HDTV ($1,499) and Toshiba® 50" LED HDTV ($299.99).
• Tablets were a hit this year as well, with high demand for the advertised X-Treme Tab 7" tablet ($39.99) and Mach Speed Trio Stealth 7" multi-touch tablet ($69.99).
• The advertised 2 ct. total weight diamond jewelry ($99.99, regularly $599.99), Kenmore Elite washer/dryer pair ($649.99 each) and kids Performance Gear bubble jackets ($15.99) were among the hottest sale items of the day.
• Other hot gift items that flew off shelves included: the NordicTrack® fleece ($9.99), the Craftsman® 18-volt drill/driver (50 percent off at $29.99), DieHard workboots ($39.99), and small kitchen appliances, such as a Black & Decker 4-slice toaster oven for $17.99.

Spirit of the season

• A store in Chula Vista, Calif. had store associates leading cheers and group sing-alongs prior to the store opening.
• A heartwarming scene took place at a store in Denver, Colo. where one customer took advantage of a doorbuster price on Joe Boxer® micro fleece pants ($7.99, reg. $30.00) and Cannon® fleece throw ($3.49, reg. $9.99) to purchase 30 of each, which they planned to donate to a homeless shelter.
• A SHOP YOUR WAY Rewards Member family arrived at the Sears in Alpharetta, Ga. dressed in matching print pajamas, ready for a family evening of shopping.

For additional media materials and information please visit, or contact the Sears holiday media hotline at (312) 527-2742 to arrange an interview or in-store filming.

About Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services and  is part of SHOP YOUR WAY, a social shopping experience where members have the ability to earn Points and receive benefits across a wide variety of physical and digital formats through ShopYourWay.com.  Sears, Roebuck offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through its Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the United States and Canada. Sears, Roebuck also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com, and specialty catalogs. Sears, Roebuck offers consumers leading proprietary brands including Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End -- among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S.  The company is the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 15 million service and installation calls made annually. For more information, visit the Sears, Roebuck website at www.sears.com or the Sears Holdings Corporation website at www.searsholdings.com.

SOURCE Sears, Roebuck and Co.