Currys PC World also reported its biggest-ever start to Black Friday with eight sales per second and 30 TVs per minute selling online. “My television started giving up”, said a shopper who waited in line for the doorbuster deal for over 12 hours.
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Saks Fifth Avenue opens at 8 a.m. on Friday in hopes of moving jackets, ladies apparel and shoes at deep discounts. As Brad Tuttle details on Money.com, Black Friday deals have been migrating from Friday morning and Thursday evening in stores to online and/or in stores for the entire month of November. With the parking lot filled to capacity, drivers circled slowly looking for spaces, causing a backup of traffic trying to pull into the lot. Then the 29-year-old from Chicago called her husband, who was in the toy department with their cart, and told him to come pick her up.
“I’m from NY and I’ve never done Black Friday before”, she said.
Discount retailer Gabriel Brothers – which has a new Lancaster store at East Towne Center – remained closed this year on Thanksgiving, opening instead at 6 a.m. today. Staples has reversed course and will close on the holiday.
Shoppers filled the isles and filled their buggies full of Black Friday sale items Thursday at Walmart. The National Retail Federation is expecting holiday sales to rise 3.7 percent, slower than last year’s 4.1 percent growth rate, due to stagnant wages and sluggish job growth. But grabbing those dollars will be tough.
The madness began after a stream of shoppers plowed down a pile of the discounted appliance, sending the boxes flying across the store’s floor. Stores also are contending with an increasing shift to researching and buying online.
Major retail stocks including Target and Wal-Mart fell in early trading. He also said that he has been pleased with strong results in online sales.
Target has a deal on a 48-inch Samsung 4K Ultra HD TV for $599.99, down from $899.99. President Franklin Roosevelt even moved Thanksgiving from the fourth to third Thursday of November in 1939 to add a week to the Christmas shopping season. Adobe crunched some numbers in an attempt to guess the best time for various holiday items.
Evan Palmer was first in line, arriving at Best Buy at 6 a.m. He waited in his auto until 7 a.m., and still nobody had arrived.
“This is my first time shopping on Thanksgiving”.
Others said they had only been driven to the store by a particular deal.
For shopping gurus, this is day you’ve all been waiting for.
“Last night was clearly the kickoff to Thanksgiving shopping and we saw it, not just with the lines, but with purchasing”, CEO Terry Lundgren said.
But not everyone is impressed with the Thanksgiving lines. Some were frustrated that deals that were supposed to be available on Friday were already gone.
The Boots flagship store on Sedley Place, central London, was one of a handful of shops which opened extra early, advertising deals on huge posters by the shop entrance.
Another shopper said she and her partner planned to head to Argos following her shop in Tesco, having ordered a Playstation and four games online for £300.
The Naperville, Illinois, Target was busy but calm about two hours after opening.
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This practice has been banned in many states because of hazards such as the campers blocking fire lanes and emergency access.
