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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 2015)
2B THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2015 Cheap gas fueling expanded Thanksgiving travel day By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Low gas prices were driving more people to hit the road to reach their Thanksgiving celebrations, and airports were bustling Wednesday as travelers flying to meet fam- ily and friends braved long lines and fears about terror- ism. Nearly 47 million Amer- icans are expected to take a car, plane, bus or train at least 50 miles from home over the long holiday week- end, according to the mo- toring organization AAA. That’s the most travelers since 2007 — an increase of more than 300,000 people over last year. Among the reasons given for the spike: an improving economy and the cheapest gasoline for this time of year since 2008. Pat Flynt had recent ter- ror attacks in Tunisia and Paris in mind as he waited to get through a checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for his flight to visit a sick uncle in Baltimore. “Hopefully there are no issues. That’s my main con- Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department K9 Officer Mark Carrillo, with his dog, Benny, patrol Union Station, Tuesday in Los Angeles in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. cern,” he said Wednesday. “But with what’s been going on recently, I don’t care how long they take, I just want to be safe.” There have been no changes to the nation’s terror alert status, but the recent at- tacks in Paris, West Africa and elsewhere prompted the State Department to warn American travelers about the risks overseas. Other travelers took ad- vantage of cheap fuel to get across country for the holi- day. Erin Goff stopped Wednesday morning at a Circle K in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore for a break from her 1,350-mile trek from Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, to Wichita, Kansas. She typically makes the trip every year and hailed the cheaper gas prices. “It’s going to cost about half of what it cost a year ago or two years ago,” she said. Goff said she occasional- ly flies but decided against it this year because of con- cerns about a possible terror- ist attack. “Sometimes I fly, and I wanted no part of that,” Goff said. “That was out of the question.” Robert Giba was cutting across Arkansas on a trip he has made many times before but will cost him less this year. He refueled his SUV at a Pilot station in suburban Little Rock, where regular gasoline was $1.88 a gallon. “It’s nice. It puts a little extra money in the pocket,” he said. In the West, drivers faced fresh snowfall in Califor- nia’s Sierra Nevada and rain in the San Francisco Bay Area. Travelers heading out on Thanksgiving Day could see 8 inches of snow in the Denver area. Americans prefer auto travel because it provides more control over expense, trip distance and duration, said Susan Hiltz, AAA spokeswoman in Michigan. “Auto travel volume tends to be evenly spread out over the five-day holiday, but airports are especial- ly busy on Wednesday and Sunday,” she said. Anyone heading to a ma- jor airport should factor in 50 extra minutes on the road, according to the traffic data company INRIX. And that’s just getting to the airport — never mind getting through security. In Atlanta, traveler Fati- ma Boyd said Transporta- tion Security Administration officers were thorough but friendly. “I think they’re making sure that everybody has safe travels and in great hands and nothing crazy goes on during the holidays,” she said. “So that’s a plus.” The head of the agen- cy, Peter Neffenger, has assured the public that the TSA is “taking every mea- sure to protect the millions of air travelers in the coming weeks.” Airfares have increased just 69 cents on average since last year, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp., which processes tick- et transactions for airlines and travel agencies. Smartphones overtake desktops for holiday shopping By MAE ANDERSON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK — If the be- ginning of the holiday season is any indication, it could be a merry mobile Christmas for shoppers. For the ¿rst time, there’s expected to be more people visiting retailers’ web sites through their smartphones than on desktop computers or tablets during the ¿rst week- end of the holiday shopping season that begins on Thanks- giving Day. Mobile traf¿c during the ¿ve-day start to what is typ- ically the busiest shopping period of the year is expected to reach 56.9 percent of total traf¿c, up from 48.5 percent last year, according to IBM Watson. And even though every- one who “window shops” on their phones isn’t going to buy, mobile sales are jumping too. Mobile sales are expected to account for 36.1 percent of on- line sales, up from 27 percent last year, according to IBM Watson Trend. The bumps in traf¿c and sales come as retailers try to make the mobile shopping ex- perience easier by improving their mobile apps and add- ing coupons and other deals. Shoppers also have gotten more comfortable browsing retailers’ web sites as smart- phone screen sizes have gotten bigger, making it easier for them to see photos of the items they want to buy. Digital wal- lets and apps that let shoppers store payment information are helping too. “It’s very convenient,” said Seth Reineke, 25, an insurance worker from Iowa City, Iowa, who plans to peruse Amazon’s weekend deals from his phone. Michael Dwyer/AP Photo/File Tashalee Rodriguez, of Boston, uses a smartphone app while shopping at Macy’s in downtown Boston. For the first time, analysts predict more than half of online traffic to retailer sites will come from smartphones than desk- tops during the busy Black Friday holiday shopping week- end. And though it’s still a small fraction of online reve- nue, mobile sales are jumping too. Larger phone sizes, improved retailer apps, more online deals and shoppers’ increasing comfort with shopping online are driving the trend. “It allows me to keep track of time-sensitive sales without being tied to a computer or having to leave a holiday event or get-together.” Overall spending this sea- son is expected to be some- what muted. The National Retail Federation, a trade group for storeowners, expects industry-wide sales to be up 3.7 percent in November and December, less than the 4.1 percent of last year’s holiday season. But online spending ¿g- ures are stronger. Forrester predicts online sales will rise 11 percent to $95 billion. And mobile sales are becoming a bigger piece of that pie. For- rester expects them to account for 35 percent of e-commerce this year and 49 percent in ¿ve years. That compares to 29 percent in 2014. Adobe, which measures 80 percent of online sales from the top 100 U.S. retailers, pre- dicts 40 to 45 percent of all retail traf¿c during November and December will come from mobile devices, up from 37 percent last year. Mobile sales are expected to total 20 to 25 percent of total online sales, up from 16 percent last year. Wal-Mart, the world’s larg- est retailer, expects that 75 per- cent of U.S. traf¿c to its web- site will come from mobile devices this holiday shopping season. That’s up from 50 per- cent two years ago. Likewise, eBay says it expects mobile sales during the holidays will be “signi¿cantly” higher than the 41 percent mobile sales made up of total revenue in the third quarter. Thanksgiving and the day after the holiday known as Black Friday are expected to be particularly mobile-friendly “While retailers may lament their low conversion rates and slow download speeds on mobile devices, shoppers still keep shopping on those devices,” Mulpuru says, adding that shoppers “ap- pear to have greater tolerance for imperfection, much like in the early days of desktop.” Jill Markiewicz, 38, a per- sonal shopper in New York, says she shops frequently on her iPhone 6s on Saks Fifth Ave and J.Crew’s mobile web sites. “I’m typically on foot run- ning around a lot ... don’t get a whole lot of desk time,” Markiewicz says. “You can go from email to checkout cart in a matter of minutes.” CO M IN G IN FEBRUARY! 2016 ED ITIO N of th e a w a rd-w in n in g publica tion from th e publish ers of Coa st W eeken d JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR, DMD, FAGD 503/325-0310 1414 MARINE DRIVE, ASTORIA www.smileastoria.com ANONYMOUS smartphone shopping. Taylor plans to start looking for hol- iday deals on Wednesday and continuing through the week- end, speci¿cally for Converse shoes and Kate Spade home accessories. “I’m going to sit on my couch with my phone and my laptop and buy from there,” she says. “I don’t plan on go- ing into the store at all.” Mobile shopping still has its problems, including securi- ty concerns, sluggish apps and hard-to-navigate mobile web sites. And much of mobile traf- ¿c doesn’t translate into sales. But for shoppers, the con- venience factor is hard to beat, says Forrester Research ana- lyst Sucharita Mulpuru. T h e on ly region a l m a ga zin e focused on just th e Colum bia - P a cific region W h at a find! Professional, friendly, put me at ease during a very invasive procedure. Up to date on the latest in technology. My family and I are certainly going back. I heard Dr. L in the next room with a family, making the children laugh. He was so gentle and kind that the little ones weren’t afraid of him or whatever procedure they were having at all. shopping dates because people can use their phones to take ad- vantage of limited-time offers wherever they may be. Adobe predicts mobile will drive the majority of shopping traf¿c, 51 percent, for the ¿rst time on Thanksgiving Day. “There’s a lot of opportu- nity to do ‘shopping under the table’ on Thanksgiving Day,” said Tamara Gaffney, director of Adobe Digital Index. “In between cooking, watching football and in general hang- ing around family and friends, there’s down time to glance at the iPad and smartphone and do some shopping.” Take Danyell Taylor, 34, a writer in Washington, D.C. who likes the “easy access” of RES ERVE YO UR S PACE TO DAY! Advertisin g dea dlin e: D ecem ber 18th , 2015
