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Holiday Shoppers out in Full Force; 1,500 Protests Planned at Walmart's Nationwide; Poll Showed 4 in 10 Saying Economy Getting Worse; Lions Blow Out Packers 40-10; Roberts' Advice for "Hunger Games" Star
Aired November 29, 2013 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Brand new CNN polling just out.
Plus the celebrity chef.
NIGELLA LAWSON, CELEBRITY CHEF: There is -- to me there's no bad way to eat bread.
COSTELLO: A billionaire and allegations cocaine use and cover-ups. Brand new details just out of $100,000 lavish spending spree.
And the Lions roar, the Cowboys conquer, and the Ravens get revenge.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Hey, good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me on this Black Friday. Chances are if you're watching CNN right now, then you missed on -- then you missed out on scenes like this one.
People literally pushing and shoving their way to those bargains at this Walmart store in North Carolina. At another location the chaos ended in an arrest for one woman and for those who could not wait until today the shopping began shortly after the turkey was finished.
This was how Thanksgiving played out at a Brandsmart in West Palm Beach, Florida, where people clamored for electronics deals. While the Toys R' Us in Time Square handed out supersized shopping bags to those who we're in the store's Thanksgiving Day opening.
CNN is tracking all of the Black Friday chaos. Zain Asher is at the Macy's flagship store in New York City, Kyung Lah is at a Walmart in Los Angeles.
Let's begin at Macy's with Zain.
Good morning.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Hi, Carol. Yes, you know, I spoke to a Macy's executive earlier today about the decision to open on Thanksgiving. He said listen, last year we were open at midnight and we had 11,000 people outside, they already had bags from other retailers. So with retail, it's all about the competition. With shoppers, it's all about getting those deals. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER (voice-over): Just hours into the holiday shopping season kicking off the hunt for bargains is becoming a contact sport.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, hey.
ASHER: Many taking advantage of some retailers opening their doors on Thanksgiving night, some foregoing the holiday dinner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Settle down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax.
ASHER: Tempers flaring at this Walmart with shoppers clamoring for a bargain on tablets in Virginia. Just hours after its signature parade, Macy's broke out the barricades for hundreds of hungry shoppers starving for a deal at their flagship store in New York City.
Across the country, long lines a welcome sight for retailers hoping to cash in on the holidays. Hundreds more lining up outside of a Toys R' Us, starting at noon all so they wouldn't miss out on must-have items on their kids' wish lists.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully they'll get their Skylander and get all their dolls and toys and over with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to, like, make sure I'm here in the front of the line instead of all the way in the back.
ASHER: Shoppers camped outside of this Best Buy in West Palm Beach, Florida, all in hopes of getting their hands on a 40-inch flat screen TV for only $200. It's big ticket items like these and rock bottom prices on electronics that are feeding the frenzy. Police stepping in to end a tug-of-war over a television.
And amid all the chaos, police shot one shoplifter at this Kohl's store in Illinois, sending the thief and two officers to the hospital.
A convenient alternative to the mayhem, Cyber Monday, when retailers are set to offer steep discounts online so you can avoid the crushing crowds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are people that can help you anywhere. Slow it down.
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ASHER: And I've been walking around talking to sales associates asking them, you know, what was it like having to work on Thanksgiving. Some of them are saying, well, you know, we volunteered for it. Also we're getting paid time and a half, plus the biggest bonus is that we're getting to sleep extra early so we can do some Black Friday shopping for ourselves.
Carol, back to you.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Zain Asher, live at the Macy's store in New York City. Thank you.
For its part Walmart seems very pleased with the day it calls its Super Bowl. In a statement the store announced record-breaking Black Friday sales adding that, quote, "Our Black Friday were bigger, better, faster, cheaper and safer than ever before."
But one thing Walmart may not be happy about today is the 1500 protests scheduled at its stores nationwide. They're being organized by a group called Our Walmart which is pushing for better working conditions.
Kyung Lah is standing by in Los Angeles, just one of the cities where those protests are scheduled to take place.
Before you start, Kyung, here's what Walmart CEO Bill Simon told CNN earlier about these demonstrations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL SIMON, CEO, WALMART: Black Friday, we just talked about it, you know, millions and millions of people out shopping, is the big stage and Walmart is a big player on the big stage. And as there are those who want to try to change an industry, a service industry like retail, it's not unexpected that they would be out on Black Friday at Walmart with something to say about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It is interesting, Kyung, that Walmart seems to be targeted so often as opposed to Target or Kmart or other stores. It's always Walmart that seems to be in the crosshairs. Why is that?
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's look at the employee numbers. Very, very simply, Target has approximately 300,000 employees in the United States, compare that to Walmart which has approximately 1.5 million.
That, Carol, is about 1 percent of the U.S. labor force, so when the CEO says a big stage, that's what he's talking about, but protesters who are going to be showing up here at this Walmart says it is a fully appropriate stage to have this conversation. The conversation about low wages.
Yes, many of the employees did volunteer to work today to make time and a half because the base wage is so low. Certainly so low that you can't support a family of four, especially in an expensive place like Los Angeles. So protesters here expecting about 100 to 500 people to show up just outside of this Walmart and if you do look at the composition of the protesters, Carol, most of them are not current Walmart employees but they say they represent the silent employees who are inside these stores -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes. They claim the employees are too afraid to strike or to protest their wages.
When you say base wage and I know it's difficult to get a figure out of Walmart because they would say they pay at the higher end of what retailers pay their workers. What is that base wage at Walmart?
LAH: It really depends what your job is, whether you're a manager, if you're an entry level clerk, but if you do make a comparison to Walmart, to Target, the wages actually quite comparable. So Walmart, because of the number of employees it has, yes, that is the big target for a lot of these, you know, worker rallies.
COSTELLO: And I ask you that because, you know, their base wage seems to be such a secret, they can't really give us an average wage that employees are paid but these protests across the country certainly are leaving their mark because Walmart has been on a PR tear. You watch television over the last few months you saw this commercial. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a 401(k) retirement plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started part-time, now I'm a manager.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My employer matches my charitable giving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I get bonuses even working part-time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where I work, over --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You watch this commercial, Kyung, and this morning, for example, our producers were bombarded with press releases from Walmart touting what a great day they had yesterday, record sales, everybody's happy, the stores were safe, so Walmart is certainly on a PR tear and it's got to be due in part to these protests that have been popping up across the country.
LAH: Yes, there are a lot of protests. You mentioned 1500, they're not exactly all large scale protests, like many of our viewers may think. Many of them are small scale activities. There are about six to eight major protests and the one that's going to be here is going to be quite large, it's going to impact anyone who wants to come inside Walmart, anyone who wants to come to this mall, it is going to be visible.
There are going to be a lot of local news cameras. It's a lot of bad free press for Walmart, so yes, they're having a frontal attack as far as a good PR, trying to sort of counter that.
COSTELLO: All right, Kyung Lah reporting live from Los Angeles this morning.
In the next hour of CNN, executive vice president of Walmart chief merchandising and marketing officer for Walmart in the United States, I should say. His name is Duncan McNaughton. He'll be with us in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
Despite all the holiday shopping madness and some stores reporting record-breaking sales nearly four out of 10 Americans say the economy is actually getting worse.
Take a look at this new CNN/ORC Poll, only a quarter of Americans say the economy is starting to recover. And Americans seem to be overly overall pessimistic, nearly six out of 10 say things are going badly in the country today.
So let's talk more about that with our CNN political director Mark Preston.
Mark, as you look at these numbers, what's the takeaway?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, the takeaway, Carol, is that last number that you showed, 59 percent of Americans saying things are going badly in the country, that's a 9 percent increase from the same question that we asked back in April, so it goes to show you at this point, even though there's talk about the economy improving, if it's improving at all, Americans out there don't think it's improving.
And what's really interesting is that when we asked this question, we asked it, you know, of course, all across the country, and that is the sentiment all across the country, whether you live in the northeast, the Midwest, down south, whether you're a woman, whether you're a man, whether you're black, whether you're white, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter what your income level is. You think things are going bad in the country.
In addition to that, politically, though, if you're a Democrat, you actually think things are getting better and if you go across the political spectrum if you're a Republican, you really have a bad outlook on the economy -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And I'll say that's really interesting. If you look at the hard core numbers the economy is getting better, although very, very slowly, right? Certainly better than it was in 2008. There's no question about that. So it's interesting that Democrats sort of see the economy is getting better as you said, but Republicans don't, so why not look at the hard core numbers and take away from them? And -- I mean, what's causing that difference of opinion between parties?
PRESTON: Well, certainly, you know, for two reasons. One, I mean, you could argue that the economy is not moving quick enough, that there's still a lot of people out of jobs, the housing market is still very much in trouble and then add in this whole case of the health care, of implementing this new health care law that is affecting people's bottom line and confidence in government certainly is at an all-time low. But in addition to that, if you're a Democrat, your guys in the White House, President Barack Obama is a Democrat, they have hope in him turning the economy around and that's why you see the numbers seem a little bit better if you're a Democrat than if you're a Republican.
COSTELLO: Well, I would argue that he's not so well-liked among Democrats so much either. And we got problems with this country, right?
Mark Preston, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, reports of this comet's death have been greatly exaggerated. We'll tell you why NASA is still holding out hope for the Thanksgiving Day comet as it flies by the sun.
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COSTELLO: Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on the field and maybe he was in the way. It's the Thanksgiving night football play everybody is talking about. Baltimore's Jacoby Jones, he looks like he's headed for a touchdown but then, oh, there's Mike Tomlin. He steps on the field and supposedly the Ravens player had to move around him.
Tomlin says he was just watching the play on the jumbotron but Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco says the coach deliberately tried to impede Jones.
Let's ask our expert, shall well, Andy Scholes.
What did it look like to you?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, he was legitimately watching on a JumboTron. It looked like we the mirror effect looking in the mirror and something's on the right side of your face but you touch the left side of your face. He moved to the wrong side and it looked like it slowed down Jacoby Jones because he stepped a little bit to the right and got tackled from behind.
Hey, he didn't get penalized for it but he might get fined because after the play he had a big old grin on his face like I got away with one. The ravens they weren't too mad about it because they won the game.
Jacoby Jones this is what he had to say about the play afterwards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOBY JONES, BALTIMORE RAVENS: I'm looking at him the whole time I'm like, does he know you're on the field, I'm looking like is he going to move? If I was him I'd do the same thing back there.
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SCHOLES: So, as you see the Ravens not too mad, they won the game 22- 20. COSTELLO: If they lost the game, it would be a really --
SCHOLES: It would be huge deal. They were in the good mood.
You know, you're in the good mood, Carol. You're Detroit Lions -- for the first time in a decade, they won on Thanksgiving Day. This one was -- it wasn't even a game, right?
COSTELLO: I've never seen a Lions blowout on Thanksgiving, usually they lose, right, for the past nine times, they've lost. But it was like a literal blowout.
SCHOLES: Matt Flynn had a miserable day. The Packers offense only had 126 yards for the whole game. The Lions on the other hand had over 500. This game wasn't ever close after the half.
COSTELLO: Well, I have to thank Josh Sitton, because, of course, he verbally trashed the Lions calling them scumbags and dirt bags. He didn't take his comments after the trashing of the Green Bay Packers. He stuck by them, but threw a compliment the Lions' way.
Let's listen.
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JOSH SITTON, PACKERS GUARD: I said what I said. I'm into the taking it back but I mean, I moved on from then and I don't want to sit here and talk about it all day. No one ever said they're not a good front. We know that. They're probably the best inside front probably in the league but you know, like I said, I don't take anything I said back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: What's great about this, you know, Ndamukong Suh, he was a model citizen yesterday. He didn't kick anybody. He didn't stomp on anybody and the safety he got on Matt Flynn he gently laid him down in the end zone, I thought that was funny.
COSTELLO: And Flynn just went down, it's OK. It was a great game.
Dallas won, too, we should mention that. You'll have more in sports.
SCHOLES: Sure will.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.
Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, Julia Roberts has some advice for Jennifer Lawrence, what America's sweetheart is saying about Hollywood's new "It" girl.
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COSTELLO: Three unpublished works from "Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger have shown up on the Internet, "Three Stories" appeared on several download sites, but nobody seems to know where they came from. The stories were previously only available for academic study and could only be read under supervision at the Princeton University library.
Salinger was known for keeping his works tightly held and allowed a small number to be published before his death in 2010. In fact, in this particular case, this new work was not supposed to be seen until 50 years after his death. So, the mystery endures.
Julia Roberts has a few words of advice for one of Hollywood's newest stars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well done!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well done!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Woo, woo, woo!
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COSTELLO: Yes, "The Pretty Woman" actress has words for "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like to be in a real war?
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COSTELLO: Roberts admits the flaming arrow shooting starlet is pretty darned cool, she might not have what it takes to be America's sweetheart and enter into that exclusive club just yet.
Nischelle Turner is live in New York.
I kind of like Jennifer Lawrence's image. She's tough.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I don't think she is saying she doesn't have what it takes. I think she's saying maybe she has too much, because Julia Roberts has held the America's sweetheart title for some time, Carol. And, you know, while Jennifer Lawrence already has an Oscar under her belt, has enough charm, Julia says that doesn't automatically make her eligible for the "America's Sweetheart" club.
Apparently, there is this kind of club. It includes actresses like Marilyn Monroe, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock and Meg Ryan.
Now, while promoting her latest movie "August: Osage County", Julia mulled over the idea of admitting Jennifer to the club. Then she came to the conclusion that "The Hunger Games" star is probably too cool to be America's sweetheart. Here's what she told MTV. She said "I think she's fabulous but she seems cooler than me. She shoots flaming arrows. Is that a new cupid tactic?"
I need to think about that one. Now, unlike Roberts who launched her career with romantic comedies like "Pretty Woman" before moving on to heavy hitting drama. So far, Jennifer Lawrence has really focused on grittier roles in movies like "Winter's Bone" and "American Hustle". That's coming up later on in December.
But Julia was just 22 when "Pretty Woman" came out, when she got an Academy Award nomination. That's the same age that Jennifer Lauren was "The Hunger Games" launched her into stardom, and when she won the best actress honor for "Silver Linings Playbook."
Now, when we asked Julia what advice she's give Jennifer as someone who has been in her shoes. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INTERVIEWER: We see Jennifer Lawrence so young, just won an Oscar, your niece is in the business, what advice do you give to actresses who are just starting out?
JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: Don't take advice from aging actresses. That would be my advice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: I love it. I love it. Don't listen to me.
Julia did joke that her card to the America's Sweetheart Club probably expired but I say no way, that smile, that body of work of hers, she's a lifelong member and I think that Jennifer Lawrence could add a little flavor to the America's Sweetheart Club.
What do you think?
COSTELLO: What I like about Jennifer Lawrence she's already handling meaty roles. I mean, "Pretty Woman", honestly, I never liked that movie "Pretty Woman", because of the subject matter, you know? Julia Roberts as a hooker, come on and meet Richard Gere to rescue her from the street?
TURNER: Carol, I'm about to pass out, your girlfriend card. You and I are here, Carol, "Pretty Woman"?
COSTELLO: I hate that movie.
TURNER: But you're right about Jennifer Lawrence and meaty roles.
COSTELLO: Julia Roberts featured gritty, strong women and I think that's better for young women to watch on the big screen. Jennifer Lawrence is doing that even at 23.
TURNER: You know, she is and you're right about that and she does that by design, Carol. When I spoke with Jennifer, you know, a few weeks ago, and we talked about this, she said listen, I live to act. It's what she loves to do. She loves to create and she does it even though she has the limelight she doesn't necessarily seek it. Her work speaks for itself and she's young, beautiful, fun, so people want to know about her.
But you're right. She very much is an actress in the best way possible.
COSTELLO: Well, at least we agree on something. Nischelle Turner --
TURNER: I'm going to hunt you down and tie you down and make you watch "Pretty Woman" with me again.
COSTELLO: No, oh, God. It would be torture.
Nischelle Turner, thank you so much.
TURNER: All right.
COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, the deadline for fixes to the Obamacare site is approaching in a matter of hours. But even after tomorrow, will Healthcare.gov work?
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COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.
It was a wild scene for Thanksgiving shoppers at one North Carolina Wal-Mart. Shoppers pushing and shoving each other aside in search of doorbuster deals and the scene outside Walmart stores today may not be any calmer, although we hope it is. It's bound to be, right?
Thousands are expected to protest, the store is calling for higher wages and better working conditions. The company's new CEO says that's something he's been expecting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL SIMON, PRESIDENT & CEO, WALMART: Black Friday, we just talked about it, you know, millions and millions of people out shopping is the big stage and Walmart is a big player on the big stage.
