Shoppers Brave the Crowds to Find the Best Deals on Black Friday

Black Friday shoppers in Long Beach circulate in and out of the Nike Factory Store.

For countless days, it seemed politics and the election were the only thing filling up the television screen this month. Rampant discounting is more intense this year. That number was set to double for online sales. The best part? You won’t have to contend with massive crowds, cranky shoppers and heavy traffic to score a dirt-cheap TV.

The Cedar Falls, Iowa resident says he’s doing all his Christmas shopping on Black Friday, buying gifts for himself, his wife and family “until my card blows up”. Google was a big help in comparison shopping, she said, but she also downloaded apps for Kohl’s, JC Penney and Home Depot.

Shamika Malloy of Albany was also there shopping for her four teenage children.

As in years past, numerous best deals appear to be regarding electronics.

“We play Marco Polo”, she said. “I wanted something from Macy’s, and I got on the internet because they didn’t have it available in the store”.

By 4:45 a.m. on Friday, Michael and Jessica Ansbro were close to finished with their holiday shopping for the year. But some in-store deals are just too good to pass up.

When Black Friday moved to Thursdays, she started leaving right after dinner to go shopping. Chief Executive Kevin Mansell says online sales broke records for Thanksgiving, but store visits showed solid growth as well. That includes online and store shopping. At Target, the price cuts grew to 38 percent from 36 percent.

“I guess everybody hit the toy stores and all the other big department stores last night so we’re hitting them this morning and it’s been a breeze”, Ayers added. “I checked to see if it was a good price or a bad price”, Dubbs said. Last year, the steepest discounts were earned by early morning shoppers. “So in reality Black Friday has, in a sense, lost its momentum because people have been able to spread it out”, notes Guskey.

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

A crowd of shoppers in hoodies and winter coats stood next to the hhgregg near Dayton Mall as it opened it doors at 7 a.m. on Black Friday.

Realizing that fewer people are willing to join Daniels, chains have resorted to lottery-type offerings to lure shoppers to stores.

Amazon started its deals on November 1. In preparation for the holidays, Amazon expanded its product offerings by 30%, the equivalent of 3.6 million new products, according to 360pi, a retail pricing- and assortment-tracking firm. Sanford and his colleagues anticipated hundreds would line up Thursday night and thousands will come through the doors today in search of bargains on toys and electronics. Macy’s launched its holiday selling season at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than it has opened on the holiday in each of the last two years.

Thanksgiving, vies with the Saturday before Christmas as the busiest shopping day of the year. Amazon launched a Black Friday Deals Store on November 8.

Consumer spending has been healthy this year, boosted by high employment and rising wages. Now I am going to head into the Best Buy store and I am just going to grab some speakers if they still remain, you know?

Overall, more than 137 million plan to shop over the extended Thanksgiving Day weekend, according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Shoppers queue up in front of Victoria’s Secret at the Dartmouth Mall on Black Friday, in Dartmouth, Mass., Nov. 25, 2016. “It’s insane here today”, said Lenny Cavanaugh of Butler. “But now you have a better chance of actually getting what you need”.

In years past, Black Friday sales attracted shoppers who would “camp out” outside the mall doors as early as 3 a.m. Friday to be the first inside when stores opened at 5 a.m. “It’s better now, it used to be so packed”.