Slow start to Black Friday after Thursday evening launch

Times may vary by location.

Across the retail industry, advertisements were being released of the biggest bargains two to three days earlier in 2016 than previous year, showed a report released by an online company that tracks retail and social media sites amongst others. “People were parking in the mall parking lot and walking over to Best Buy and Target”.

Those who have bought into the idea of Black Friday are finally discovering it can be an enjoyable way to save a fortune on your Christmas shopping.

“I mean look you’re taking care of the customers I guess but I’m away from my family and at this point, I just wanna be with my family eating and drinking that’s about it”, said John Ordonez; mall employee.

Shamika Malloy of Albany was also there shopping for her four teenage children.

When asked if she knew what items she was going to buy, Silva replied, “No!”

Trego said it was a diverse crowd that arrived Thursday night at the center, cementing her impression that stores are just giving shoppers what they want.

From the outlets to Best Buy, people marched in and out of stores, collecting bags at every stop.

Last year, 95 million consumers across the country shopped local on Small Business Saturday. “Whoever’s got the best deals, that’s where I go”.

Driving the online surge: CE doorbusters and mobile shopping. “This year some retailers have decided not to partake, whilst others have spread their offers out over a longer period in order to ease pressure on logistics and IT infrastructure”.

“It was a really good start. Really calm”, said shopper Lauren Green, who was in line outside a Zara clothing store in the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island east of NY at 5:20 AM.

The National Retail Federation, a US trade association, predicts holiday sales would increase 3.6 percent over a year ago, to $655.8 billion. But it includes online spending and other non-store sales such as catalog spending.

Target’s mobile sales have grown to account for over 60% of its online sales.

Macy’s plans to open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, with most Macy’s stores closing at 2 a.m., and then reopening at 5 a.m. Friday. You might be able to find out about special deals if you sign up for a retailer’s email newsletter ahead of the big day. Saks Fifth Avenue has started offering concierge help on its website.

The report warned that “several hundred malls” were at risk over the next 10 years, with “troubled malls” co-anchored by Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy’s “at the greatest death spiral risk”. You weren’t alone. New numbers this morning show the trend of mobile shopping continuing to shake up the traditional timeframes of holiday shopping. For years, Black Friday has started the holiday shopping season in the United States with retailers offering steep discounts. The retailer had a record-breaking Thanksgiving, with both traffic and sales topping Cyber Monday in 2015. And Toys R Us, which saw strong traffic at stores and online, will be doing more online flash sales.

What’s the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Some of the most popular national chain stores have huge events planned in stores and online (and some are already underway).

But behind her, Carrie Spicer of Candler said she and her daughter will ignore the boot display at the front of the store to check off items on their Christmas list.

A combination of post-election tension release; a wider array of online doorbusters; and the need to walk off that Thanksgiving Day meal are sending millions of Americans to shopping malls and smartphone keypads.