LONGWOOD, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Black Friday shoppers may notice sales aren\u2019t what they used to be \u2014 and for some industries, that\u2019s a result of rising tariffs. One of those includes toys and collectibles.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Jorash, lead manager at Acme Superstore, says planning for the shopping weekend takes time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely have to stock up on toys ahead of time, so preorders as far back as April, May for stocking up for this time of year,\u201d said Jorash. \u201cYou have to have product for Black Friday, it can\u2019t just be come grab all the stuff everybody else didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business started in 1980. Taking up an entire building in Longwood along State Road 434, the walls and floors are stocked with toys, collectibles, comic books, cards, and more.<\/p>\n
Jorash says this year, there was a price difference in shipping and handling costs because of tariffs. It\u2019s a fluctuating number, depending on who and where the products are distributed from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were definitely given a scare ahead of time that there would be delays. I haven\u2019t seen as much of that on anything besides Pok\u00e9mon,\u201d said Jorash.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why analysts say shoppers may notice a difference in sale prices this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prices, the markups in a lot of these items \u2014 particularly the ones with high tariffs \u2014 they\u2019re going to be built into the price. In a lot of cases, a 70% discount on an item may not be as much, even though it\u2019s marked off 70%, may not be as significant as a year or two ago,\u201d said Chip Lupo.<\/p>\n
Lupo, a writer and analyst for WalletHub, says tariffs will affect overseas items \u2014 often electronics or apparel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey come into effect only on items that are imported, so once retailers\u2019 shelves are empty and they bring in new imports, once the tariffs are implemented, it\u2019s going to affect those prices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the team at Acme, they\u2019re expanding their sales \u2014 up to 50% off \u2014 through the weekend in hopes of bringing in shoppers.<\/p>\n
The team also emphasized customer service and creating a connection with collectors who may only visit once or twice a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little kid this morning came in and he bought his first Ninja Turtle and he freaked out,\u201d shared Jorash. \u201cSo, while it is a sales thing, you do also look for those little moments of putting something in someone\u2019s hands for the first time \u2014 that\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday also kicked off a toy fundraiser at Acme, in partnership with Lily\u2019s Warrior Project, to collect new, unwrapped toys for children\u2019s hospitals. The deadline to drop off toys is Dec. 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONGWOOD, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Black Friday shoppers may notice sales aren\u2019t what they used to be \u2014 and for some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2031,274,19163,558,1015,115,139,141,140,1014,278],"class_list":["post-63909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-black-friday","tag-business","tag-emma-delamo","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-seminole-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}