Black Thursday replacing Black Friday

He said: “Over the years we have seen many events imported from the US – Trick or Treat for example – but Black Friday really caught the imagination of the shopping public last year and we are seeing sales soaring this year as a result”.

While Chelmowski and others were vying for deals at Kohl’s Thanksgiving night, hundreds of other shoppers were at Albany’s Target, hoping to find similar bargains.

People began Black Friday shopping as early as Thursday afternoon.

The popularity of online shopping did not appear to be matched on the high street and in supermarkets where there were no signs of the huge crowds which gathered on Black Friday previous year, or the scuffles which broke out as customers fought over big-ticket items.

At the Mall of America in Minneapolis, the largest in the country, Edward Yruma, managing director at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said hes seeing less traffic than years past as well.

Target has teased Cyber Week, which means you can take advantage of one whole week of deals even after Thanksgiving and Black Friday become a memory. “We’ve got great deals across the board, from basketball goals to ammunition and guns, to fire pits”.

Retailers have historically used deep discounts on a limited supply of big-ticket items to lure shoppers to their physical stores, thus the name “door-buster”.

This is only the beginning for the shopping season.

Since Black Friday now starts Thursday evening, stores are spreading out their deals, by day and even hours, giving shoppers incentives to keep coming back. “I actually got food in the auto so, like you switch”, said a customer who stood in line on Thanksgiving. “We’ll definitely be out again (on Black Friday) because some deals don’t start until then”.

Members of the public at Tesco Extra in Sheffield this morning at 5am getting their hands on the Black Friday bargains.

There were no American-style hordes, but Regina stores had their share of Black Friday shoppers in the morning. “They gave me a free blanket”, said Noah Lovejoy of Olney Philadelphia. Survey respondents shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend expect 59 percent of their spending to be online, up from 52 percent past year, compared to 36 percent in stores, down from 45 percent in 2014. “I don’t know if that is going to impact us today”.

He also said that Abercrombie and Old Navy are looking good, but overall believes that apparel has taken a hit, as has mall traffic. “We’re talking nearly being open for 24 hours straight”, said Hannah Fine, manager in training at LUSH Cosmetics.

Toys R Us CEO Dave Brandon said the company “got off to a good start last night”, and its Times Square flagship had “lines of people down the street when we opened the doors at 5 o’clock”.

Amazon said at 9.10 p.m. (2110 GMT) that more than six million items had been ordered through its British division, breaking the sales record set last Black Friday when more than 5.5 million items were sold-equivalent of around 64 items per second.