Black Friday Shoppers Take On Middle Tennessee Stores

Toys R Us shoppers were able to find everything from Star Wars products to Coding Caterpillars.

(Chris Heller/The Houma Daily Courier via AP). Cyber Monday is similar to Black Friday, but without long lines and mass crowds of fellow shoppers.

(Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal via AP).

7Skyforce HD hovered over several nearby stores, like a Best Buy located just north of the mall, where customers lined up for doorbuster deals.

“It’s a long season”, said Charlie O’Shea, lead retail analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.

Shoppers didn’t wait until Black Friday this year, instead opting to jump right into the shopping world after chowing down on turkey yesterday, apparently, because Target reported today that Thanksgiving was its biggest online shopping day ever.

“We expect negative (store) traffic given (the) earlier start this year of the holiday selling season and rise of mobile, which could be as much as 60 per cent or more of all traffic, and consumer exhaustion from a saturated promotional environment”, the analysts said. Lines may keep some from buying in store, but they don’t keep people from spending money.

To organize her shopping, Dubbs had her family go through fliers and circle items they wanted with details like clothing sizes.

“It’s better than coming in the store”.

“It used to be very busy but for the past two years the mornings are not very insane”, said Gina Reynolds, a 39-year old housewife, shopping at a Macy’s M.N store in the Water Tower Place Mall in Chicago. “Whoever’s got the best deals, that’s where I go”. This was due to heavy discounting in the early hours of the holiday season and higher than expected online revenue on Wednesday.

A number of people are working off their Thanksgiving meals and leftovers by hitting the malls and shopping centers.

It’s easier to hurry home and shop online.

“We’re not going to be spending as much money as previous year”, said Mohammed El Hazzouri, Assistant professor of Marketing at Mount Royal University.

Every year it seems the stores open earlier and earlier for Black Friday, making the name a little less catchy if they are opening before you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner.

Millions of Americans were expected to take part in the annual rite of retail, seeking deals on everything from blouses to big-screen TVs.

“Old Navy had really good deals”.

Target, which put its Black Friday deals online Wednesday, said it sold 3,200 televisions a minute during the first hour that doors were open.

It has become known as the busiest sales weekend of the year for most retailers.

The record numbers bode well for Amazon and other online retailers as they gear up for what promises to be an even bigger day: Cyber Monday. “(Black Friday shopping) sets the whole tone for the holidays”, Dubbs said.

Pineda, who lives in Cypress, estimated that he and his family had already racked up $1,700 worth of purchases and if they had not taken advantage of Black Friday sales, the total retail price of everything in their bags would have likely exceeded $3,000.

Macy’s has been offering exclusive deals for its app users.

At 4 a.m.at a Target in Duarte, Michael Chung, 40, and his three children said numerous store’s doorbuster items were still in stock. Saks Fifth Avenue has started offering concierge help on its website. “[We] started off at J.C. Penney’s for the sales they had going on”, she said. “This year is very weird”.

Even President-elect Donald Trump got into the act. Shoppers spent $1.15 billion online between 5pm EST and midnight -a 13.6 % increase from 2015, according to Adobe Digital Insights. Mall of America suspended operations on the holiday.

“This doesn’t feel like Black Friday”, Jensen, 18, said.

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

The bargains kept Linda Dubbs, of Hanover, Penn., on successful shopping marathon that had gone on more than 16 consecutive hours Friday morning.

“If the deals are there, I’ll be there”, Heckman said. “If it were up to me, I would be in my pajamas and on my computer at home”.