Yes, Black Friday drew throngs of shoppers to stores throughout the South Bay and beyond, but many agreed the day just didn’t hold the same impact as in years past, with smaller crowds turning out at stores.
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The discount day originated in the U.S., traditionally kick-starting the Christmas shopping period.
Jon Copestake, of the Economist Intelligence Unit, told the Daily Telegraph: “What we are starting to see is Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Super Saturday all roll into one in a sales season that lasts several weeks in the run-up to Christmas”.
On Friday, some of the demonstrators in Chicago linked arms to form human chains in front of main entrances to stores.
Gone are the throngs of frenzied shoppers camping out for days ahead of the big sales bonanza on the day after Thanksgiving. He also was pleased with store traffic. Shay said reports of long lines of shoppers waiting to enter stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday “were matched by reports of record-breaking online sales”. People who don’t follow the economy closely likely don’t know that an increase in online sales is quite unlikely to offset a decrease in brick-and-mortar store sales.
As 5:30 a.m. rolled around, Greenville’s Black Friday was a little more subdued than many would have thought. We didn’t start shopping until today.
Many box stores, including Macy’s, Wal-Mart and Target, are focusing on growing their online business this season.
“I was asking where all the people were”, she said.
When asked at Kmart what the McVay family was looking for, Joly McVay said, “I have no idea”.
Many shoppers seemed to take the disturbance in stride, and some even snapped photos of the crowd. With TV deals offering $700 off the original price, Torrance resident Giancarlo Russo rushed to a nearby Best Buy with his dad even though he isn’t a fan of Black Friday.
Best Buy has deals by the day, Toys R Us by the hour, bringing in crowds at differnt parts of the day and restocking overnight. And for some, deals advertised by stores weren’t actually bargains.
And while the NRF’s traffic forecast represents a 1.6 percent increase from previous year, there’s a risk that fewer shoppers than expected may show up. “They don’t have to enter info this year”, she said. Everyone is saying it’s going online and I think that’s going to be true in some ways. Similar deals were offered last year, the first year for retail recreational marijuana sales.
At Academy Sports + Outdoors, celebrating its first Black Friday in Johnson City after opening in April, the line stretched around the building before the doors opened.
Predicted in-store chaos didn’t happen in Merseyside stores on Friday – but retail giant Amazon reported record figures for the day, with more than 7.4 million items ordered. It also expects about 135.8 million people will be shopping during the four-day weekend, compared with 133.7 million a year ago.
Online sales for Thanksgiving were already up 26 percent year over year according to IBM Watson Trend, which tracks and analyzes retail revenue and trends.
On Tuesday, Dec. 1, ShopperTrak will release a full weekend recap, which will include additional details regarding sales and shopper visits.
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Customer Growth Partners, a Retail Consultant firm, is studying customer traffic around the entire United States this year to analyze new patterns.
