FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nowadays, there are multiple ways to Black Friday shop—whether it's online or in-store, businesses are prepared for the influx of inventory. As far as waiting in long lines to get the discounted gift, local shoppers think it's a thing of the past.
Usually, stores have Black Friday sales on the actual Friday, but major retailers such as Walmart have started Black Friday deals on Wednesday.
One store 5NEWS spoke with on Fayetteville Square says they started their Black Friday sales on Monday to get ahead of the holiday.
Skye on the Town is a women's boutique in Fayetteville, and it's having a store-wide sale of 50% off until Sunday. In the past, the store did doorbuster racks on Black Friday, but to keep up with competitors, they changed the way the store does things too.
"We decided to start our Black Friday sale earlier this week and just kind of do a Black Friday week," Skye on the Town's social media director Hannah Delahoussay said. "We noticed that other retailers were starting their Black Friday sales early, so we decided to join and do the same thing."
Although Black Friday trends change on a year-to-year basis, Delahoussay said it's not slowing down store traffic.
"It's been pretty busy," Delahoussay said. "Monday morning, as soon as I opened, there were people in the store because we just started the sale. With it being right before Thanksgiving, it does slow down just a little bit but I hope that early Friday morning we'll have a lot of people coming in for Black Friday. We open at 9 a.m."
When it comes to prepping for holiday shoppers, store owners are more focused on prepping for Small Business Saturday.
"In Fayetteville, it's a really big thing to shop local. And there are more local businesses in Fayetteville than I feel like anything else, so people that live here know the importance of it and know that connection with the owners of each business, and it just means a lot more and it goes a lot farther," Delahoussay said. "So I feel like people would rather support a smaller business and help someone personally versus a ... corporation."
For April Spencer, co-owner of Kindness & Joy Toys, shopping locally also plays a big role in their business.
"Having a small but local business is hard," Spencer said. "So any local support that we can get, we just appreciate it so much and so we are so thankful that there's actually a day kind of set aside for that."
For Spencer, the big sale for their store features giveaways for customers on Small Business Saturday. The store prides itself on carrying special toys at an affordable price.
"We try really hard first of all to carry products in our store that are unique and that you're not going to find at the big box store," Spencer said. "We try really hard to carry the unique items in the store, but also we are super diligent about price points. So sometimes when you're talking about carrying the unique toys, it sounds a little bit boutique-y and maybe expensive, but we try to really carry a wide range of prices so that everyone can find something here."
Most importantly, Spencer said the connection with the community is what sets the store apart from major retailers. She said fulfilling the specific needs of customers is an advantage to shopping at small businesses.
"We have a Christmas wish list here. So your kiddos can come in, we'll give them a big Christmas tub, they will fill it with all the things that they love for Christmas that they would like to have, and we will then make them an online registry. And you can share that registry with your friends and family. People can get online and shop it, [or] they can call us and we will help them shop over the phone. And then we wrap it all for free," Spencer said. "So it's something that the kids love and really enjoy, but it really makes shopping easier for the moms."
Small Business Saturday is after Black Friday in an effort to promote local small businesses in the area. If you plan to shop with local merchants this week, make sure to confirm their hours of operation before you head out.
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