Black Friday shoppers hunt for deals, hit the shops for entertainment

Black Friday is hyped as one of the biggest in-store shopping days of the year, with stores trumpeting giant sales and even bigger advertising campaigns.

Walmart is opened 24 hours a day, but their Black Friday deals started at 6 p.m. Thursday night.

-Instead of waiting for items on your shopping list to be shipped, you get immediate access to them. A Target in McAllen, Texas, quickly sold out of the Amazon Fire TV stick, on sale for $29.99.

At Palmer Park Mall, the prize was the Nintendo 3DS, on sale at Game Stop.

“The Xbox One S TB is one of the hottest items this year, and this deal offers huge savings”.

“It’s finally getting a little cold”, he said. “This year there was only four of us, but we’ve had as many as nine or more in the past”. With Donald Trump’s win, there have been concerns on how the president-elect will impact shoppers’ behavior.

On Friday morning, Walmart announced that 70% of traffic to the retailer’s website during its Black Friday promotion so far had been from mobile devices. The Arkansas-based retail company Walmart said it beefed up on some of the most in-demand products, with more than 1.5 million TVs, almost two million of tablets, laptop PCs and desktop computers combined and three million video game titles in stock.

MarketWatch noted that Black Friday freebies range from free goodies for pet lovers (aarf! meow!) to classics for cooks. Malloy said she hadn’t yet shopped online but usually does so.

Some 14 million British shoppers were predicted to go on a £1.97 billion spending spree on Friday – setting a new record – with more than half spent on the internet.

It also saw a spike of sales made through mobile phones between 8am and 9am, with a 21% increase.

The day after Thanksgiving is largely geared toward mega retail stores.

Target is continuing to push Cartwheel, which now has 30 million users, by offering app users an additional 15 percent off when shopping with its mobile companion while in-store on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That includes online and store shopping.

“With the lines between traditional brick and mortar and e-commerce continuing to blur, the need to make a big splash during large retail events like Black Friday is significant”, Traci Gregorski, senior vice president of marketing at Market Track, said in an e-mailed statement.

Peter Ruis, the boss of fashion chain Jigsaw, told the BBC that Black Friday discounts were “deceptions” as the goods are often not worth the original price. Online sales are expected to be up 7 percent to 10 percent to as much as $117 billion, compared to a 9 percent growth rate past year.

The top-selling items, Adobe says, include a slew of electronics and toys, like Samsung 4K TVs, iPads, and drones.

Still, the store was not overwhelmed after the doors opened – a scene replicated across the country on what used to be the biggest shopping day of the year.

According to a recent article in the Star Tribune, only three Mall of America stores, Crayola Experience, Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: SHLD) and Macy’s Inc (NYSE: M), chose to remain open on Thanksgiving.