On Black Friday, believers, skeptics hit the malls

At Tysons Galleria, an upscale shopping mall in northern Virginia, Black Friday meant black tie, Gucci and marble floors.                                           

For the weekend after Thanksgiving that officially kicks off the holiday spending season, the mall hired male modelactors, dressed them in white gloves and top hats and paid them to welcome shoppers with witticisms and compliments.                                           

"This is the upper echelon," observed Matt Baldwin, 37, a Galleria 'greeter.' "Like a lot of actors, I've worked retail so I know what these people are wearing. They're wearing jeans, but they''re $350 jeans."    

Meanwhile, across the country in Los Angeles' Eagle Rock Plaza, shoppers shuffled in from the parking lot unattended, bleary-eyed from chasing bargains all night. Instead of Chanel, they found $5 tablecloths at Anna's Linens with not even a mid-priced mall standby like Gap in sight.

Shoppers' experiences at the two malls illustrate the uneven quality of the US economic recovery. Affluent Galleria shoppers can scoff at the Black Friday weekend''s promises of bargains galore. At Eagle Rock, they are Black Friday believers, convinced it helps them afford the holidays.

"I don't believe in Black Friday," said Shamideh Bazel, 63, of the day that kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season. 

A Muslim native of Iran whose family celebrates Christmas as a fun secular holiday, she said curiosity drew her to the Galleria that day. She considers Black Friday a ploy on retailers'' part to induce shoppers to spend, not save.                                           

A Pew Research Center survey found 55% of the country lost economic ground during the recession, losing jobs and defaulting on loans. Those folks tend to shop Eagle Rock.

There was no Gucci on Raul Aficionado's shopping list.  

At 9 am, Aficionado, 30, was on his third mall of the day. His odyssey started with a Wal-Mart, but he got too cold waiting in line at 2 a.m., and instead headed for another local mall with a Disney store so he could buy stuffed animals marked down to $8 from $25, he said.   

Burquas and Betsey Johnson                                           

The other 45% of the country held its own, according to the survey, conducted in May of a nationally representative sample by telephone. They were affected, but did not suffer serious economic hardship. That would be the Galleria gang.

Proximity to the nation's capital supports the local economy in Fairfax County, home to the Galleria, elite lobbyists and many of Congress' wealthier members.  

Oil billionaires, including burqua-clad Saudi princesses, make the adjacent Ritz-Carlton their Washington, DC home base, and tour the Galleria on chaperoned shopping sprees. 

"This is the civilized Black Friday experience," said Galleria spokeswoman Aba Kwawu.  

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the $14.3 trillion American economy, and Black Friday is a key time for merchants. Some store chains generate up to a third of their annual sales during the November-December period.                                           

Most forecasts call for slightly more spending in 2010.                                           

The National Retail Federation forecast a 1% increase this year to $688.87 in holiday spending per person.                                           

So the Galleria discounts, and deeply -- but discreetly.   

"You can buy Prada, Gucci, at discount. It's the experience and the way they present it that's different," Kwawu said.

Apparel retailer Betsey Johnson was offering 40% off its offbeat women's fashions. At cookware chain Williams-Sonoma Inc, customers could snag up to 75% discounts.

Savvy shoppers were suspicious. 

"I know there aren't a ton of legitimate deals," said Allison Hartnett, 20, a student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio who said she'll spend about $1,000 on gifts this year.     

Losing jobs, buying gifts                                  

Earlier this fall, the National Bureau of Economic Research, considered the arbiter of recessions, designated June 2009 as the end of the slump, which started in December 2007.  

Yet today, more than half of those who lost ground say they are just getting by, at best, according to the Pew study.                                           

"I'm just buying gifts for my closest friends and family this year," said Jessica Rodriguez, 26, outside Eagle Rock's Target. She'll spend $500, down from $800-$900.                                           

The physical therapy business where she works as an assistant closed a couple of offices. Colleagues got laid off.                                           

In Eagle Rock's Los Angeles County, which was hit particularly hard by the housing market downturn, the median income of $55,452 is near the national median of $52,029, according to the latest census data.

By contrast, Fairfax County's median income is $107,075.  

Like physical-therapy assistant Rodriguez, Eagle Rock shoppers tend to work low-to-mid paying jobs in businesses that cater to the ritzier neighborhoods that surround them. That includes nursing, accounting, plumbing and construction.                                           

"Two Americas were revealed by the recession," said Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial. "What it's giving us is a real bifurcation of consumer spending."

Still, even at Eagle Rock, American optimism lives.     

"I feel better this year," said Emily Irlan, who has been out work since she lost her human resources job last year. "I really think the election is showing the government, 'Stop spending our money, and don't raise our taxes.'"  

She paid for her Cuisinart coffee maker, down to $90 from $160, out of savings.                                           

She's confident she will eventually get another job. "America will bounce back," she said. "We always do."