After the turkey, some hit the shops to start the holiday season

“It seemed like traffic was fairly healthy today”. Last year, the steepest discounts were earned by early morning shoppers. “I think we are kind of seeing a bit of a downturn”. Of those shoppers, about 41 million – 46 percent – said they shopped online on Thanksgiving Day, according to the National Retail Federation.

“There’s still an interest in Black Friday”, Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren told CNBC.

“Black Friday shopping, I mean, it’s the holiday season so it’s time to get our sales on”, shopper Carolina Estadela said. If you want those rock-bottom prices, you’re going to have to be the dedicated kind of shopper, and there are those deals out there.

Retailers are cautiously upbeat about the 2016 installment of the seasonal United States shopping spree, which can account for as much as 30 per cent of a chain’s annual sales.

“I personally like to go to a store and talk to someone”, she said. “It was just yesterday at 3 p.m. that we opened up”.

At 7 a.m. on Friday morning, the parking lot of The Avenue West Cobb was sparsely decorated with the cars of shoppers hoping to be the first in line.

Target Corp said on Thursday it had seen one of its “strongest days ever” online.

But Black Friday in stores is still the most important day for the industry, he said. “Consumers were clearly out to buy”.

Many retailers have developed apps over the years to try to streamline the shopping process and cash in on the latest tech craze, but few prove useful. “Consumers were clearly out to buy”, Cohen said.

A first-time mother and daughter duo said this was probably their first and last time Black Friday Shopping. The retailer said it was witnessing heavy customer traffic. “They’ve done a lot of hyping up through digital advertising and promotions”.

Among the chief lures of this year’s Black Friday offerings, Wal-Mart has slashed prices on high definition television sets and drones that can fly up to a half-mile from its operator.

Shoppers will spend 51 per cent of their holiday budgets online, and 46 per cent in physical stores this year, according to Deloitte’s shopper’s survey.

It’s going to be an exciting and insane day, say retail workers, some of whom started shifts on Thanksgiving Day. “So, why not get my Christmas presents for less money?” said Chantel Gervis, who spent almost 11 hours going from store to store on Thursday and Friday in Visalia and Tulare.

Discounts started at 25 percent off and were only rising more.

U.S. 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.

Some 60 percent of Wal-Mart’s online orders were being placed via mobile phone, the company said.

While many stores opened on Thanksgiving this year, others held off on an early start. “You can get your favorite piece of clothing for like 50 percent off”, said Annie Dao/ Chadsford Checking off their lists. of whose been naughty or nice. Including discounts on the Amazon Echo, Amazon Tap and Amazon Echo Dot.

“I always like to walk, go to the mall”, said the Chanhassen, Minnesota resident.

“It’s nearly like the online stores are setting the agenda”.