Black Friday store sales fall as Americans buy more online

Another shopper, Tyler Shimer of Montrose, says he’s been Black Friday shopping for the past few years.

For a specialty store like H.H. Turner Jewelers, Black Friday isn’t normally a busy day, said Store Manager Cathy Bouknight.

Toys “R” Us is offering the “vast majority” of its Black Friday deals to online shoppers as well this year, said Richard Barry, executive vice president and global chief merchandising officer with the retailer.

Since Black Friday is a USA invention, and the United Kingdom has just adopted it the last 5 years, they will be just a step behind.

“This year, we saw Black Friday ads emerge before Halloween”, he said, and in-store sales were bigger in the days leading up to Black Friday, “which is a result of retailers successfully elongating the holiday season”.

Moreover, ShopperTrak data indicates consumers may be getting savvier about purchases, Kearns added.

However, some industry analysts called the opening on Thursday a bust as many said there was not any problem finding a parking space at malls or navigating through the stores.

For many, this is the unofficial start to their holiday shopping season. But the more common explanation is that it points to profits being “in the black” as retailers bank on year-end sales for a large part of their annual profits.

Crowds at the major retailers across the USA proved today that Americans are willing still to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to score a deal on Black Friday.

“We started last night at Walmart right after Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s been awesome”.

Reports on in-store sales are expected later this weekend.

Storch said the luxury chain considered and then rejected opening on Thanksgiving, but it still wanted to do something special for its customers. He was surprised by the amount of deals from each store and variety of people willing to spend big bucks on items. JC Penney opened at 3 a.m.to a line waiting at the doors. Deals often start early, on Thanksgiving, as retailers scramble to take advantage of the shopping frenzy.

They could physically get the items at 2 p.m., but had to wait until 6 p.m.to check out. The Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce and many of its member stores have been promoting “Small Business Saturday”, which emphasizes the value and importance of shopping at local, small stores. Full-day online sales were projected to total $1.7 billion, a 22 percent jump from a year ago. Denise Carroll was at Wal-Mart Friday morning picking up early presents for her daughters.

Shopper Rick Ross, was first in line for the Best Buy door busters.