Holiday Shopping Season Now Underway

And so it may not have sunken in yet that the holiday season is practically upon us.

While the day after Thanksgiving has come to mark the start of holiday shopping, an increasing number of people are shopping online.

When do the sales start? .

There are a lot of things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day and one of them is the massive amount of discounts to be enjoyed the day after on Black Friday. The store opened at 5 p.m. with deals on many electronics and more. The most-watched deal so far this holiday season is a Mermaid Tail Blanket.

However, with some stores beginning Black Friday on Thanksgiving, some shoppers say scoring a good deal has become much more hard.

Kohl’s, too, has also been heavily investing in sprucing up its shopping app and pulling forward some online deals. Eastern Time on Thursday. “I went to Walmart last night”. “You need to be with family”.

If you’re in MA, don’t plan on post-turkey shopping on Thanksgiving night. In 2015, almost 30 million people shopped on Thanksgiving – an increase from 2014 but down from the 45 million who shopped on the holiday in 2013. So keep your slippers on. You can wait a little longer and get even better deals.

Donnell Allen, a sales associate at JC Penny, attempts to hand out coupon packets while being rushed by a crowd of Black Friday shoppers shortly after the doors opened at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016, at Midland Park Mall in Midland, Texas.

What items are people going to be scrambling to buy? .

The general manager of Best Buy says he expects the store to stay this busy until the holiday season comes to an end. Their Black Friday consisted of opening an hour early, a couple of items on sale.

By noon, shoppers jam packed the mall looking for deep discounts. “I think we are kind of seeing a bit of a downturn”.

She’s finished her holiday shopping online, but she and her mother continued their decades-old tradition of spending Black Friday together.

“They are all trying to beat each other to the punch and starting their promotions earlier and earlier every year”, said Traci Gregorski, senior vice president, marketing at Market Track.

Black Friday shoppers at a Toys R Us store. Rhode Island, Massachusetts and ME have all banned retailers from opening on Thanksgiving Day. You do not have to rush anywhere and everything is just a click away. It kicked off its Black Friday sales last night at 6 PM.

But it’s an overstatement to say that Black Friday is dead.

The National Retail Federation forecasts total holiday shopping will rise 3.6% to $655.8 billion from a year ago with 137.4 million people shopping in stores and online during Thanksgiving weekend alone. Some 74 percent of that group will be shopping on Black Friday. Many stores even opened on Thanksgiving, slashing prices for the earliest shoppers.

America’s 15 largest retailers put out black Friday promotions three days earlier than previous year, and sent 15 percent more email promotions trying to get consumers.

What else might help me make my shopping game plan? .