It’s been a long-time tradition for Karen Nystrom of Waukegan and her daughter, Grace, to get up early on Black Friday to go shopping for bargains.
“Not this year,” she said.
Instead, because of the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll be meeting with their dogs to hike Lyons Woods in Waukegan, at a time when they likely would have been sipping hot chocolate at a mall after having made several purchases.
Nystrom is not the only Lake County resident making that choice this year, but malls and big box stores are nevertheless preparing for a busy day on Black Friday, with special coronavirus precautions in place. Stores have also been holding Black Friday sales all November to give shoppers an opportunity to avoid expected day-after-Thanksgiving crowds.
However, Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills and Gurnee Mills — as well as big box stores like Best Buy, with stores in Waukegan, Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills and other Lake County towns — will not open Thanksgiving Day as they did last year, and for some the hours on Black Friday will be somewhat shorter.
Hawthorn is open 8 a.m-9 p.m. on Black Friday. Gurnee Mills is open 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Best Buy stores are open 5 a.m.-10 p.m.
“Over the past several years, the concept of Black Friday has been evolving,” said Jenna Velelekos, marketing manager at Hawthorn Mall.
“With Black Friday no longer limited to a single day, it had become more of a mindset with specials extended throughout the weekend,” Velelekos said. “But with COVID, this year will look even different. There will be specials extended, not just through the weekend, but for two weeks following Black Friday.”
On any busy shopping day this season, at least for now, retail stores will need to follow orders Gov. Pritzker’s instituted a week before Black Friday. That means retailers — except for grocery stories and pharmacies — are asked to limit store capacities to 25 percent of normal.
Velelekos said since the pandemic hit, Hawthorn Mall owners have made, “significant investments in new technology, and added new cleaning protocols and programs.”
It’s standard now for retail businesses to do frequent deep cleanings, she said. But at Hawthorn, special filters in the HVAC systems have been installed to remove airborne particles, she said.
In addition, escalator handrails are being sterilized with every rotation to kill 99 percent of bacteria and viruses, she said.
“For a more personal touch, we’ll have ambassadors on hand with wellness amenities such as face masks and hand sanitizer at all mall events and activities,” she said.
During in-store Black Friday events, Walmart along with other retailers will require customers to form a single line and will limit the number of shoppers inside at any one time, according to its website.
Customers will also be required to shop down the right-hand side of the aisles. Black Friday still is expected to be the busiest day in stores and at malls this holiday season, but overall traffic in retail stories could be down by up to 25 percent compared with last year, according to ShopperTrak.
Best Buy has been encouraging customers to shop early, according to Matthew Smith, media contact for its Illinois stores. “Hundreds of our Black Friday deals were made available when we announced our Black Friday ad Oct. 29,” he said.
“Black Friday remains synonymous with great deals on technology and this year is no exception,” Smith said.
Walmart also is advertising that some specials will only be available in stores on Black Friday.
Velelekos said, “Thanksgiving ushers in the start of the holiday season. So for most people, Black Friday is and will remain a high point of the shopping season.”
For others like Nystrom, at least this year, there will be no Black Friday shopping memories.
Nystrom said when her daughter, who is now in her 20s, was 4 or 5 years old, they would pore over Thanksgiving Day papers to see what specials they could find on Black Friday. They’d get up at 5 a.m. and make sure to get to a store early to be one of the first 100 people in line to get a free ornament.
Over the years, whether they were in Door County, Cook County or Lake County for the Thanksgiving weekend, they kept the tradition alive.
“It’s just the two of us,” Nystrom said. “It doesn’t matter where we go, as long as we stand in line and get a hot chocolate, and we always found stuff that was only on sale that day.”
This year, she’s done more holiday shopping online, and when she goes to a store she wears a mask and gloves, and knows what she needs before she goes inside.
“I’m not too sad about not continuing the tradition this year,” she said. “We’ll make it work. I’ve been of the mind that COVID has afforded a lot of opportunities to stay inside. I’ve read so many books. I have had so many FaceTime conversations.”
She added she was hopeful about a COVID-19 vaccine being available soon.
For Thanksgiving Day, she and her husband planned to be alone. On Black Friday, she and her daughter, Grace and Grace’s boyfriend planned to go outside for a walk at Lyons Woods in Waukegan with their dogs.
“We’re not going to buy stuff that day,” Nystrom said.
“At the end of the day, we will have a big long dining table set up. We’ll have champagne and pie. They’ll be on side of the table. We’ll be on the other end, and we’ll send them home with lots of leftovers,” she said.
Grace Nystrom, who has been in lockdown for three weeks at a college she’s attending in Michigan, said, “Especially with all the rising cases (of COVID), it’s smart for people to be staying home when they can. I’m going to be traveling home for Thanksgiving. That itself already seems to pose a risk.”
She said she will get tested for the virus before leaving and when returning to college.
Grace Nystrom said she’ll miss Black Friday shopping with her mother this year. “We have this really strong tradition,” she said. “I’m feeling a little sad. I’m pretty bummed out. But there’s always next year.”