Record online sales for Thanksgiving

It looks like the Black Friday shopping tradition could be losing its appeal as many shoppers are choosing to avoid long lines and chaos at malls and stores and instead purchase goods from the comfort of their homes through online shopping.

J.C. Penney opened its doors at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

People walk past and into the front of Old Navy during a Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving Day Nov. 26, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. The three-year-old contest is a million dollar jackpot that the store offers to shoppers who wait in line specifically for the prize.

It’s fanning of the customer base that’s taken at least some of the focus away from being the first in the store Friday morning.

Spending is predicted to soar by 31% on a year ago following the Black Friday weekend, according to Experian-IMRG.

However, many stores were packed. The trade group expects about 30 million to shop on Thanksgiving, compared with 99.7 million on Black Friday. He just takes advantage of special sales, he said.

Marrocuin initially planned to start his shopping during the night, but Best Buy stores had closed at 1 a.m. and reopened at 8 a.m. on Black Friday. “Yeah, some of them were, definitely”, said a customer. “We got two flat screens at Brandsmart, a stove and a PlayStation 4”, said shopper Luis Pena.

“We are working diligently to get it back up as quickly as possible”, she said by phone from Houston.

Martin said early promotions in November were a bigger factor hurting Black Friday than store openings on Thanksgiving evening. All those factors point to a need for heavy discounting – good for consumers, but not so great for retailers’ profits.

For those who missed out on Black Friday deals, don’t fret, retailers we spoke to say, there’s more deals rolling in for Cyber Monday.

For Dale Herring of Suisun City, his shopping trip served a dual goal as he was starting his holiday shopping and also shopping for his wife’s birthday. The company said it is an “estimated decrease from last year” but did not give the percentage decline due to an internal change in the way it calculates data. “We don’t have a plan because it gets to insane”.

Shoppers hunting for bargains found fewer people to compete with than in previous years.

Shoppers using the Argos, Tesco, Boots, River Island and Debenhams sites also reported problems.

In response, Wal-Mart and Target will be making all of the deals available later in the stores online Thanksgiving morning. “That’s kind of a bonus”.

Judging from the crowds so far, though, the shopper numbers could be hard to come by.

Heavy traffic exiting eastbound Interstate 80 onto Orange Drive near the outlets was backed up through midday Friday.