Shoppers flock to stores to snatch up Black Friday deals

Macy’s offered a 50 percent off deal, and that pulled Emma Ross into the Black Friday fray. Retailers are also increasingly making available online the type of door-buster deals typically reserved for store locations on Black Friday.

What about online versus in store?

United States online sales surged on Black Friday, with Amazon.com Inc offering the steepest discounts among e-commerce sites as it set the agenda for what has traditionally been the biggest shopping day of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers. It’s also becoming an American export to other countries. Olivia Daniels arrived at a Best Buy store in Brooklyn at 5 am on Friday, three hours before it opened.

Overall, 22 percent of respondents told the NRF they planned to shop on Thanksgiving and 24 percent, more than half of those who said they plan to shop on Saturday, said they will do so specifically to support what’s become known as “Small Business Saturday” – an effort by locally owned shops to cash in on the post-Thanksgiving shopping spree.

Shamika Malloy of Albany was also there shopping for her four teenage children. She expects to knock about half of it out with a watch for her husband, a jacket for one friend and a comforter set for another among other items.

From the outlets to Best Buy, people marched in and out of stores, collecting bags at every stop. I was already up so I made a decision to go to the shops cause I don’t buy online.

While these spending numbers set a new record, the US still lags behind a number of other countries in online spending.

More than 137 million people plan to shop over the holiday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. On Singles Day, China’s biggest shopping day, mobile commerce accounted for more than 80 percent of sales on Alibaba’s shopping sites. Stores like Macy’s, Walmart, Target and more were open Thursday evening in what they hope will be a new holiday tradition.

“Cyber Monday – it’s going to be really good”, Marsh said.

When Black Friday moved to Thursdays, she started leaving right after dinner to go shopping.

The holiday season covering the last two months of the year is vital for retailers as they may earn as much as 40 percent of their annual revenue in the period.

It was a much different experience than a year ago when Oklahoma experience an ice storm on Black Friday. For instance Amazon is offering app only deals.

Online sales yesterday hit US$1.65 billion (RM7.35 billion) as of 1 p.m. EDT, according to Adobe Digital Index, after reaching US$1.13 billion for the day on Thursday, up nearly 14 per cent from a year ago. Saks Fifth Avenue has started offering concierge help on its website.

For some, a good deal beats out the element of surprise. At a Best Buy store in Alexandria, suburban Washington, a throng of shoppers lined up early to snag “doorbuster” deals. Schoenbaum, who was out visiting stores in Glendale, California, said customer traffic in-store remained subdued.

Asda opted out of Black Friday in 2015 and again this year following chaotic scenes among bargain-crazed customers in 2014.

Many stores staff Thanksgiving with seasonal employees and those who volunteer to work and pay them time-and-a-half. And Toys R Us, which saw strong traffic at stores and online, will be doing more online flash sales.

The biggest shopping day of the year may be winding down but there are still deals to be had.

But Julie Singewald, 44, said she was there merely as the vehicle – “and sometimes the credit card” – as her daughters shopped.

“I figured everyone would be at home watching the game, but I was wrong”, Blair said.