Black Friday in August? Columbia retailers gear up for lucrative back-to-school sales

In two weeks, students across the Midlands will return to classrooms with new book bags and clothing and with the latest in technology.

Local retailers say they have been stocking shelves and hiring workers for months in anticipation of the back-to-school crush. In many cases, shoppers have been in stores throughout the summer, which is a good sign, according to retail experts and national back-to-school surveys.

The Columbia area in particular should fare well because it is home to the state’s largest public university and robust public school districts in Richland and Lexington counties.

“A lot of people think that Christmas time, Black Friday – that whole rush — is the crazy time for retailers,” said Ron McCoy, team leader of the Target store in the Shoppes at Woodhill plaza on Garners Ferry Road. “That’s just the time that gets the most publicity. The busiest season for us is back-to-school.”

The sheer quantity of items sold for back-to-school and the manpower required to constantly restock shelves is “a big deal,” McCoy said, because everybody has to have school supplies.

While back-to-school is the busiest time of the year for other Target stores too, McCoy noted the Garners Ferry Road store is relatively close to USC and downtown. That puts the store closer to the rising downtown residential population of young professionals and USC students than almost any other discount department store of its kind. The results are tangible, McCoy said.

“Back-to-college for us is like four Black Fridays in a row, and not every Target experiences that. But we happen to be right down the road from the University of South Carolina. So, once they start moving in, every day is Black Friday until classes start.”

Final enrollment numbers aren’t in yet, but USC said it expects between 5,100-5,200 freshmen this fall, with 33,000 students enrolled on the Columbia campus in the city center. Classes begin on Aug. 18.

Then, there is the student dorm/apartment building boom that’s been in full swing in the Capital City for a few years. This year, five more apartment complexes geared toward students will open.

“When you talk about people moving into apartments and dorms, a lot of people wait until (they arrive in Columbia) to buy a new TV, a new book shelf, plastic storage bins,” McCoy said. “That’s why move-in day is our biggest day.”

The National Retail Federation’s 2016 Back to School Survey predicts a 10 percent increase in spending this year. The group’s survey predicts parents shopping for children in kindergarten through 12th grade will spend an average of $674 this year, mostly on clothes, accessories, electronics and school supplies, up from $630 last year.

“We fully expect retailers to be aggressive with offering great deals both in stores and online for back-to-school shoppers,” the federation’s chief executive officer, Matthew Shay, said in a news release.

Local retailers should get a boost from the area’s growth. In the Lexington area, for instance, 2,070 homes were sold last year, according to county officials. Through June of this year, another 1,951 homes had been sold, those officials said.

Lexington District One in the Lexington, Gilbert and Pelion areas have added 5,329 students during the last 10 years, said Mary Beth Hill, district spokeswoman. Officials expect 493 more students this coming year.

The area “continues to see significant growth in new homes and an influx of new students,” she said.

Other local districts also have added students in recent years, especially Richland District 2 in northeast Columbia and Lexington/Richland District 5 in the Irmo/Chapin/Dutch Fork areas.

McCoy, of the Garners Ferry Road Target store, said some of the most popular back-to-school items are iPads and Apple watches. “But just in general, calculators — that’s a huge electronics purchase especially for middle school and high schoolers.” Calculators can cost from $100 to $150 apiece, he said.

For many stores, back-to-school sales peak during South Carolina’s tax-free weekend.

The Best Buy in Harbison does 10 times more volume on the Friday of a tax-free weekend than a normal Friday, said Mike Torres, store sales manager. This year, the company is pushing pre-order sales of back-to-school items, which allows customers to reserve products exempt from sales taxes.

The tax free weekend begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday and ends at midnight on Sunday.

On Friday, the store will open at 8 a.m. — two hours early — at 8 a.m. so customers can simply come in and pick up the items they have reserved, avoiding the congestion. “One of the biggest shifts is the online shopping and that has been growing in the market recently,” Torres said.

Back-to-school sales are driven largely by college and high school students, said Maryann Bickle, USC’s retailing department chairwoman.

She noted USC significantly boosts the Columbia economy.

“When you are packing for moving into a dorm, you are not going to be buying your paper and your pencils and your clothing at home in Virginia, in Maryland, or wherever, because you have to move with that – it’s heavy,” Bickle said.

“Part of the fun of moving in with these 5,000 freshmen is going with your parents to a new environment and buying all these things. And they are going to be buying it in Columbia.”

With students in town, vehicle traffic will get heavier and pedestrian traffic, too, Bickle said, but neither should be a cause for exasperation.

“We need to say ‘thank you’ for the traffic, because it is bringing in our tax dollars that will help fix our roads and help keep the lights on on our streets and help pay for our police and firefighters,” Bickle said. “It’s absolutely a godsend to our town.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 6:39 PM.