Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Black Friday Madness Across The U.S.; Obama Searches For New Secretary of Defense; Best Deals On Black Friday

Aired November 28, 2014 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Let's take a look at your headlines, on this Friday morning. Happening right now -- live pictures here of Pope Francis on the ground in Turkey. He's meeting with the president of Turkey at the presidential palace.

A welcoming ceremony getting under way at the newly constructed presidential palace, the pope is expected to address a number of issues during his trip, including concerns about the plight of Christian communities throughout the region.

We are keeping an eye on a surprising volcanic eruption in Southern Japan. Mount Aso has been cranking up magma and debris today. It's already caused flight cancellations and people are being told to keep their distance from the crater. The ash cloud is more than 3,000 feet high. It's one of the world's largest volcanoes, but hasn't erupted like this in more than 20 years.

Two young boys amazingly are OK after they spent several hours buried in snow. Authorities in Newberg, New York, say the 9-year-old and 11- year-old were playing in a snow bank when a snowplow operator accidentally piled about five feet of snow on top of them.

The boys were finally found and rescued around 2:00 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. They were cold but alert. One remains in the hospital for observation, really an incredible story there.

And of course there's plenty of football to digest on Thanksgiving, the Seattle Seahawks trounced the San Francisco 49ers 19-3, in a rematch of last year's NFC title game. The Philadelphia Eagles are now alone in the first place in the NFC East after beating the Dallas Cowboys 33-10. And the Detroit Lions doubled their division rival, the Chicago Bears, 34-17, a good game.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Pam, great games. Thanks so much for that.

For those of you who were sleeping off the Turkey last night, this is the scene that you missed at Macy's in New York City. The doors flew open, shoppers poured in. The shop has been open 13-1/2 hours with holiday deals.

Joining us this morning to talk about this holiday season for retailers, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy's Inc., Terry Lundgren, it's a pleasure to talk with you from Herald Square. It's a very busy scene behind you, sir. Thank you for joining us.

TERRY LUNDGREN, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MACY'S: I'm glad I don't look as bad as I feel. I only had about three hours of sleep and that was in my office upstairs.

PEREIRA: But this is the day you prepare for all year. You guys opened yesterday at 6:00 p.m., we'll talk about that in a second, but any early indications of how you've done so far?

LUNDGREN: Well, at this store I was here, of course, as I'm always here for our opening and we had over 15,000 people waiting to get into the store when we opened at 6:00 p.m. last night. That's a record as far as we know and they were anxious to buy.

So they were not just here to look, obviously. When they're out here shopping on Thanksgiving Day, they're obviously here to buy. So it was a great start to the holiday season.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You do know that there are critics who say gosh, it's a shame, that stores are open on Thanksgiving. Taking people away from their families, maybe shoppers should be staying at home. Maybe workers should be staying home. This year you opened even earlier. Last year, it was 8:00, this year, 6:00 p.m. What do you say to the critics?

LUNDGREN: Very simply, you know, I put myself at the center of all decisions with our customers and that's what I try to represent. My door doesn't say CEO, it says chief customer officer. I start with what do our customers want to do?

It was crystal clear. They wanted us to be open last night. We had that in the feedback. They showed up in massive numbers. So we could go against their wishes, and go for others, but our decision is always to do what our customer wants.

As for employees, it's very simple, we hire 85,000 additional employees just for the November/December period with the understanding that if they would like to work for us, they will be working on these particular holiday days. That's what we need to have filled.

So our core employees 176,000 of them have the option to either work or not work. It was their choice. They got paid time and a half. Eighty five percent of the jobs were filled by our core employees, they wanted to work here.

Either they were done with their Thanksgiving dinners and were ready to come to work. And many of them said I want to have Black Friday off so I can shop. So I mean you have, you really have to not just listen to a few, you have to listen to the core customers and in our case, our core employees, that's the feedback that we received.

PEREIRA: All right, Chief Customer Officer, I want you to look at some of the feedback that we've received. I want to show you the results of a new CNN/ORC poll, talking to people about their plans for Black Friday. How many of them were planning to shop today. I was really surprised to see that 77 percent planned to stay home, 77 percent said no, we're not going to go. Does that concern you as CEO and chief customer officer, or do you feel that the reality is actually going to be different when it comes down to it?

LUNDGREN: I think the reality is going to be different. It already is different. There's just been a steady flow of customers. You know it's interesting because the customer we had at last night in this particular store at 6:00 p.m. was very different when I did my circle of stores, and came back here at midnight. It was a totally different customer.

We went from a very international and diverse crowd opening the doors, to a very young, millennial-aged crowd at midnight and beyond. I think there's different ways and different reasons that people are shopping. A lot of people are shopping online first.

And then coming in to pick up their items or coming in to see and touch the cashmere to make sure it's what they choose. No matter what, I can tell you it's going to be the biggest single shopping day of the year for Macy's, and for Bloomingdale's, so my belief is it's going to be a very, very strong Black Friday.

BERMAN: You got to be a millennial to shop at midnight, young to stay up that late. A political question here, we've been watching what's going on in Ferguson. As the week has progressed, there's been an interesting new call in the African-American community and elsewhere to boycott shopping really.

To stay home, keep your money in your pocket on this Black Friday, not go out to the stores to protest what happened in Ferguson and the grand jury's decision not to indict. What do you make of those calls?

LUNDGREN: You know, I think these are individual decisions that people feel strongly about. And I totally understand that, but it's a time of healing. This is Thanksgiving. And so I think for me, this is, I'm going to again go back to my core message always and that is, put the customer at the center of the decision.

And let the customer do what he or she chooses to do if they want to stay home, they stay home. If they want to shop, they should be allowed to do so.

PEREIRA: Well, unfortunately, we saw some of those protests spill over into your parade yesterday, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. We understand there were a few arrests, police had to push some protesters back off. Overall, do you see the parade as having been a success? It seems as though the weather cooperated.

LUNDGREN: Well, we had 3.5 million people on the streets and it was light snow. I would say that was impressive. More impressive is that over 50 million people watched it on television, making it sort of right next to the Academy awards in terms of viewership.

It was extraordinary in terms of success. And frankly, this is my favorite day of the year, for my family and we enjoyed it. We had our turkey afterwards and then I was here at the store opening. It's been a very full and complete Thanksgiving already.

PEREIRA: Terry Lundgren, we hope you have some sleep in your future you've done very well keeping it together this morning. Thank you so much for joining us, giving us an idea of how Macy's is doing this Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you.

LUNDGREN: Thank you, guys.

BERMAN: Hope he gets a chance to shop today. He probably gets the corporate discount.

All right, 38 minutes after the hour. President Obama needs a new secretary of defense. The question is, does anyone want the job? And if they do, will Republicans in the Senate allow his nominee to get through? Stay with us. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The White House searching for a nominee to take over the Department of Defense after surprise resignation or perhaps not so surprise, pushing out of Chuck Hagel. Already two top contenders have taken themselves out of contention.

Whoever gets the nod will have to deal with a widening conflict against ISIS that is assuming they can get confirmed by the Senate. Want to bring in CNN military analyst, Retired Major-General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, thanks so much for being with us.

You know, we've seen two potential nominees, Michelle Flornoy, and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, already saying they don't want the job. Secretary of defense, it's a big, big job. It's something the public figures, you would think, would want to you know take a stab at. Why do you think the reluctance?

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think in both cases, those individuals have full-time engagements right now. Jack Reed certainly a senator from Rhode Island, a veteran, a West Point graduate. So he knows the inside of what the issues are.

But I think going forward, the commitment to be the sec-def would have a very short horizon of two years. He is electable in Rhode Island for the long term.

And Michelle Flornoy has been very upfront. You have to really admire her tremendously. She says look, I've got a family and I have to focus in on them at that critical stage in my life and their development and this needs to be first.

I think what happened in both cases is they went forward and they said, please, Mr. President, don't ask me. Because if you ask me, the answer is going to be yes, I would prefer that you not ask me. I think in those particular incidents, that's what you're looking at.

BERMAN: You seem to be giving the White House the benefit of the doubt here because particularly after what happened to Chuck Hagel, we've had four secretaries of defense now already in this administration.

The secretary CNN has been reporting, you know, they officially say he resigned, but in effect he was pushed out. Is this a job right now that many in the security community are a little reluctant to take?

MARKS: Well, John, I don't know that I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I think what you're seeing is there is no more important position than to be a part of the national security team at such a significant level, the secretary of defense, that there would be a clamoring of incredibly qualified individuals to take the job.

In this particular instance you have two that said, look, I've got full-time engagements so I'm committed in a whole bunch of ways to national defense and what's best for America. I would prefer not to engage in that particular position.

Clearly, this is a very tough administration to be a secretary of defense. I think you nailed it. I think this administration is not looking for any contrarian views. They're not looking for outside input. I would imagine the person coming in to be the sec-def and there will be one.

First and foremost has to be confirmable. That may not be the criteria you would like to see. It might be the best confirmable person we could get through the door and it's a two-year horizon unless the president says we want to extend that individual.

But that's so hypothetical. I think what you're looking at is this is a very tough administration if you're trying to have an open discussion about national security in a very tough administration like this.

BERMAN: Some of the criticism or at least some of the whispers about Secretary Hagel are that he's not a war-time secretary. As someone who has served in the military, what does that mean and what kind of a difference does a secretary of defense mean to people like you, people in uniform?

MARKS: You know, Secretary Hagel had all the credentials and incredible credibility with the force. He was an enlisted man in Vietnam, wounded in Vietnam, recognized for bravery. I mean, this individual gets it.

The issue of his being able to fit and that's what we're talking about in this administration clearly was not as polished and decided upon more fulsomely as you prefer. He's doing his job and he says look I have a few questions about what's going on vis-a-vis our fight against ISIS.

I would agree with you he was pushed off to the side. So a war-time secretary of defense could be described in the terms of Secretary Hagel. But more importantly, that's not what's important.

What's important is how can the secretary of defense do the bidding of the soldiers and the service members out there in the edges of this incredibly large organization, who are putting themselves at risk? Can that individual make the key decisions inside the beltway, inside this administration, so that their necessary requirements are being met? That's what it's all about. It doesn't have to be somebody who is out there and has been out there.

It's somebody who can do the fighting where he or she needs to do the fighting and that's here in this town.

BERMAN: You talk about the men and women out there on the edges right now of the military effort. One of those places continues to be Afghanistan where just yesterday there was an attack on British convoy. Spider, do you think this shows that the Taliban is gaining strength once again?

MARKS: Well, it certainly does. When you are in a position where the Taliban can exert itself with authority and with precision, clearly they have good intelligence. They know what the movements look like. They know what routine looks like and then they can attack.

These are not serendipitous. These are not movements to contact. These are established and directed attacks that are taking place, which means that the network still exists and it's important that the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces clearly are taking the lead.

But the United States and the coalition partners need to remain a part of that until such time as Afghanistan can step up and say look, we are more confident moving forward. And that clearly is going to take time as we've seen. And this government in Afghanistan has said we're looking for your help. The previous one did not.

BERMAN: General James "Spider" Marks, always great to have you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Appreciate it.

MARKS: John, thanks very much. You as well.

BERMAN: All right, millions of people headed out for the biggest shopping day of the year. So what are some of the best bargains to find on this Black Friday? You don't have to wait any longer, we're about to tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: All right, welcome back to NEW DAY. Get your shopping shoes on, folks. If you don't have a pair, get a pair. It is Black Friday. Before you head out we want to prepare you so you can make the smart buys. Where do you go? Where do you find? What are you looking for?

Joining us for some great feels and deals, host of "Tech Bytes" and CNN technology analysts, I've been calling him the shoparelic fella -- Brett Larson. Help us break this down, what we need to know today if we are heading out there, what can we find?

BRET LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: We put this list together and a lot of this stuff already sold out, it's 8:00 in the morning. My voice isn't even warmed up all the way and things are sold out. The Beats by Dr. Dre, the price is $90 off. That's a good deal.

PEREIRA: Sold out, our director tried to buy a set now.

LARSON: So that's a good price. The GOPro camera, the GOPro, this is one of the first years it's been a big gift to give and you've seen the videos you can make of them, also sold out online. You can go to the store and find them.

TV deals right now are crazy, if you want to get an inexpensive television, one at Walmart for under 300 bucks and I looked at the specs. This is a 1080p, 40" high definition television, not like two years ago's model --

BERMAN: Flat screens are generally the thing. What is wrong with these people, but you can really save a ton of money.

LARSON: I saw a 4k TV and I'm not a huge go out and buy the 4k TV. There is not a lot of content for it, but I found one for under $1,000, $500 from Samsung, that's good. If you needed a new TV for the home that's a good price because that's a TV that will last you five or six years as the technology evolves.

BROWN: I've been one of the people I like to wait for Cyber Monday because I'm lazy.

BERMAN: As long as you have a very good internet connection, thank you, CNN.

BROWN: Are there things we should wait for before Monday when all the sales are online?

LARSON: Electronics prices are going to continue to go down. The tablet prices and computer prices right now are really low which is kind of surprising. It's like I don't think they could go much lower, but they always tend to pull something out.

The thing I like that Amazon is doing, deals at 6:00, this is going to go on sale, which makes no sense. It's an online thing. It's appointment shopping, but there's some good deals to be had, a lot of them yesterday that were unfortunately expired because they started several hours prior but they're doing it on the hour.

BROWN: Is there any psychology behind that, you know?

LARSON: It gives you that feeling of like I have to be there at 6:00 or I'm not going to get it, I got to be a part of the team. I think it's a good idea.

PEREIRA: We have 30 seconds. Give me a couple of apps to help shopping.

LARSON: Shop adviser is great because it gives you reviews of things you're going to buy, if you're not sure, is this the one I want they have full reviews. I thought I love. It's kind of like a new twist on rebates. You're not going to mail them in. This helps you out and retail me not is a good app to have around. PEREIRA: Already feel much better, better prepared?

LARSON: I feel smarter already.

PEREIRA: Bret Larson, thanks so much.

But here's a question, would you actually get in a fight with strangers for any of these items that we just talked about? Probably not, well, look at this, some fights breaking out, we'll take you right to the mall coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Black Friday fever, millions battling it out this morning for that big ticket item at low cost. Brawls breaking out over the holiday season's hottest items, will Black Friday sales show an improving economy? We'll wade through the shopping madness and bring you some of the best deals.

BERMAN: Reprieve in the protest. Will the demonstrations return to the streets of Ferguson as the city tries to pick up the pieces? This morning protesters are calling for a boycott of Black Friday that as questions linger over the future of Officer Darren Wilson. What happens next?

PEREIRA: Presidential challenges, who will President Obama nominate as his new secretary of defense, two of his top candidates withdrawing their names from consideration as the war on Isis heats up the uphill battle to replace Chuck Hagel. Your NEW DAY starts right now.