“By having it on the one day before, retailers weren’t really making the deals available to all, so they are making it into more of a four day event so they can attract as many customers as possible”. “We just get up early, don’t do makeup and we just go, we just have fun”, said Rhonda Mahurin. While getting holiday shopping out of the way early might be convenient, waking up at the break of dawn for sales that will continue into the holiday season does not sound pleasant. But the importance of Black Friday has faded somewhat in recent years as shopping trends change and online sales gain.
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Twenty years ago, for example, Thanksgiving hours were unimaginable.
On Friday, it is all about the big-box store deals.
At around 6 am on Friday, several hundred cars were in the parking lot wrapping the Ross Park mall in Pittsburgh. The amount they’ve spent has declined over the past two years, dropping 11 percent to $50.9 billion in 2014. It continued to advance.
A video uploaded to social media showed throngs of shoppers bursting through the doors while pushing trollies as the steel gate was raised declaring the store open.
What the stores did thereafter varied. “I can’t believe everyone is up and shopping at 4:30 a.m”.
In Denver, Susan Montoya had almost an entire Kmart to herself Friday morning.
Consider the opening scenes at Best Buy, on Hempstead Road.
She explained that most of the toys they carry do not require batteries and challenge kids to use their imagination when playing. “The early bird gets the worm”, Florida Mall JCPenney sales manager Anna Bulger said.
“First-world problems, I know”, she said. He bought an Xbox One and extra controller, saving about $150 on the console, he said. That’s what it feels like and that’s what it looks like….
Cielo Vista Mall and Sunland Park Mall: 6 a.m. -10 p.m. All of the rules and details are listed on page 19 of Best Buy’s Black Friday ad.
With more and more stores choosing to open early on Thanksgiving, the new Black Friday experience is becoming a much more leisurely one.
Collins, the store team leader, said Black Friday volume was helped by a “fantastic response” to the “order pickup” feature on the Target website.
“Smart Friday” items considerably marked down from their usual prices. But Deloitte’s Simpson said retailers need shoppers in the stores. “Yeah, some of them were, definitely”, said a customer.
Small retailers felt the Black Friday rush as well.
“We had anticipated it to be busier, but we’re happy with the way it is”, said Judy Fox from Winter Garden.
Even though she’s out with thousands of other shoppers, it’s an opportunity to get some time to herself. Proceeds support the not-for-profit Jewel David Ministries, which Reidenbach founded.
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Isn’t every day pretty much Cyber Monday nowadays?
