Livermore outlets packed with shoppers snapping up Black Friday deals

That’s when retailers will get a better handle on how discounts earlier in November impacted sales on Thanksgiving and the actual Black Friday as well as the extent to which online sales sapped away some of the traffic from physical stores. Shoppers have options to hit stores before and after Thanksgiving dinner, overnight into Black Friday morning and throughout the weekend, so the flow of customers into stores is becoming more spread out and less frenetic.

In Denver, for instance, Susan Montoya had almost an entire Kmart to herself Friday morning. Ashley Walton got out early to go to stores on Black Friday, but she left disappointed. Getting the best deals on electronics, toys, and whatever else they could get their hands on. “For right now, Best Buy I think is going to be the place”.

Black Friday for decades was a rite of passage for USA shoppers.

“I was raised this way”, Decastro said. “I went in and they had a good deal on it”.

Ramona Beyer, standing with her relatives at Melbourne Square Mall in Melbourne, Fla., holding cups of Starbucks coffee, said she’s been Black Friday shopping since her two sons were in diapers. Overall, the trade group estimates about 135.8 million people will be shopping during the four-day weekend, compared with 133.7 million past year.

“I feel like we scaled back this year”.

Compared to previous years, many USA retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart failed to draw exceptionally large crowds to their stores, despite their enticing discounts and deals.

Jessica Locke, 38, of Hollis, brought her daughter and a friend to Target but said they weren’t compelled by any desire to nab a particular door-buster deal. Enter the code CYBER15 and you could get a 15 percent discount on all items sold on Target’s website – we repeat, all items sold on Target’s website. We do believe, however, that its Fire tablets, as well as its Kindle e-readers and Echo speaker, will continue to be sold on the cheap come Monday.

Although he does not traditionally shop on Black Friday, Alan Batchelor of Vacaville was at Best Buy to make a purchase.

Target employees say Black Friday was a really busy day for them, but not quite as insane as Thanksgiving evening.

Batchelor had initially been to the store Thanksgiving night, but declined to stand in the long line he said he found at the checkout.

On this occasion, the queue had disappeared within half an hour, although one casual customer who arrived at 4.55am complained he was not able to buy a pint of milk due to the wait.

For Dale Herring of Suisun City, his shopping trip served a dual objective as he was starting his holiday shopping and also shopping for his wife’s birthday. “If the price seems too good to be true, it usually is”.

Those are often the hottest sellers during one of the biggest shopping events of the year.

The mall’s marketing director, Brandi Woodall, said crowds were thick but peaceful over the marathon shopping night. They ended up with a lot of candles, scented products and some clothes in the bags resting at their feet, planning to drive across Roan Street next for an assault on Target’s doorbuster deals. “That’s kind of a bonus”.