According to The Associated Press, business analysts have questioned whether Black Friday is losing its appeal as retailers push opening times back to Thanksgiving Day.
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Overall, the group expects a 3.7 percent increase to $630.5 billion though the growth is much higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent.
Sharon Campbell the General Manager of Charlotte Premium Outlets said they saw an influx of shoppers once the Panthers game ended Thursday night. “So if I go to all these stores and get the deals, I can get them more for Christmas”.
Stores, such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Amazon.com, are offering between 15 and 50 percent off for the biggest online shopping day of the year.
Some stores have been opened since before families sat down Thursday for their Thanksgiving dinners, but the shopping frenzy continues Friday.
“My mom and my sister and I go out and it’s kind of a girls’ thing for us”, she said inside Best Buy, a basket full of music and DVDs under one arm. It has become a tradition for some of them. I’m pretty warm. I actually just bought this jacket at a Black Friday sale.
Black Friday used to kick off the holiday shopping season, but now that day has taken a backseat to Thanksgiving Day.
“I thought, there’s only one of me, how can I get to all these stores?” she said. Some deals are available online and some of those are available even before the store opens. They say it’s worth it to fearless the crowds and the early morning wake up call to find those bargains.
More people are expected to use smartphones instead of desktop computers or tablets during the inaugural weekend of holiday shopping this year.
Rosales and her daughter started shopping at 4am Friday and showed no sign of stopping.
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“We had anticipated it to be busier, but we’re happy with the way it is”, said Judy Fox from Winter Garden. In about 12 hours the first Cyber Monday 2015 sales will begin. We were able to go home because everything closed from 1 a.m. until 6 this morning to rest for a few hours, got up and we were just sitting on the ground.
