Paula Clarke, the chief executive officer at Gibbons Company, and chairman of the retail division of the Chamber of Commerce, headed up the ‘Go Local’ campaign to get Bermudians buying locally, and has been one of the strongest advocates for the movement, spearheaded marketing methods to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of buying in Bermuda. She spoke to Cooper Stevenson on Black Friday about the day-long event and Bermuda retail.

Q: How did you first start off the Black Friday event?

A: This is our third year. We’d always had pre-Christmas events but we never labelled it before. So I think the actual naming of Black Friday helped it pick up momentum. I think for a while people didn’t understand what Black Friday meant. They knew what it meant in the United States but they didn’t know what it meant in Bermuda, so we really had to put a lot of marketing behind it to get the message out there.

Q: Has the marketing proved fruitful?

A: Oh, absolutely. It’s grown every single year and we anticipate it will continue to grow. I think traditionally people had planned to go away and though we made lots of efforts to keep business here, we never labelled it ‘Black Friday’ before. Historically we would start a little earlier. We’d start around the weekend before November 11 because traditionally that’s when a lot of Bermudians went off the Island to shop. So we’ve always done pre-Christmas events, but over the last three years we as a retail group have been able to market it as something that’s more easily identifiable.

Q: How does this year compare?

A: It’s excellent. We opened at 5am last year. We did the same this year. We had people waiting to get in at every door. Our marketing was directed towards that. We planned this event way in advance. Our buyers have a really good understanding of what the needs are, for our customers here.

Q: It seems there’s a lot of wrangling with vendors to get an initial discount upon purchase that will cover whatever costs are incurred in landing the product in Bermuda. Is that something you’ve been dealing with as well?

A: Yes. I think we have a very smart, professional group of buyers and they’re very savvy. They know that our customers are savvy. They know what the expectation is and they work hard to get what our customers need.

Q: What was your strategy when offering the Black Friday discounts?

A: Well actually, we’ve had great discounts throughout the day and the weekend. There are some special deals we did between 5am and 8am, and then from 8am till 10am, but we didn’t stop the deals, we didn’t stop everything. The fact is that we have enough merchandise to keep us all the way through to Christmas. So we’re fully stocked and ready for the volume of business we expect all the way through Christmas Eve and beyond.”

Q: In Bermuda, has Black Friday become an event more centred around getting shoppers to buy locally ahead of Christmas, to have Bermudians seeking those deals in Bermuda rather than overseas?

A: Oh, absolutely. Our efforts have always been geared toward keeping money circulating in Bermuda — especially since the recession. So absolutely it’s geared to demonstrate what a great selection such a small island can offer, which is incredible. You compare us to any small town in the United States and we have so much to offer.

Q: Anything else you’d like to mention?

A: I think it’s important to note that this year there are six less shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so basically we need to get — and customers need to realise — that there’s only three weeks for shopping leading up to Christmas, compared to four weeks last year. So we need to get people out as early as we can because people will always leave things until the last minute. So basically we’ve got to get four weeks of business into three.