Black Friday shoppers ditch their computers, flock to stores

It would have been easier to turn on their computers over plates of leftover turkey and take advantage of the Black Friday deals most retailers now offer online.

But across the country, thousands of shoppers woke up before dawn the day after Thanksgiving to take part in this most famous ritual of American consumerism.

Shoppers lined up outside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota by 4 a.m., and the crowd had grown to 3,000 people by the time doors opened at 5 a.m. In Ohio, a group of women was so determined, they booked a hotel room Thursday night to be closer to the stores. In New York City, one woman went straight from a dance club to a department store in the middle of the night.

Many shoppers said Black Friday shopping is as much about the spectacle as it is about doorbuster deals.

Kati Anderson said she stopped at Cumberland Mall in Atlanta Friday morning for discounted clothes as well as “the people watching.” Her friend, Katie Nasworthy, said she went to the mall instead of shopping online because she likes to see the Christmas decorations.

“It doesn’t really feel like Christmas until now,” said Kim Bryant, who considers the day the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season, though retailers have been offering deals for weeks. Bryant was shopping at a mall in suburban Denver with her daughter and her daughter’s friend, who lined up at 5:40 a.m., then sprinted inside when the doors opened at 6 a.m.

“We felt the need to run in because everyone else was running,” Bryant’s daughter, Kelly, said.

The holiday shopping season presents a big test for a U.S. economy, whose overall growth so far this year has relied on a burst of consumer spending. Americans upped their spending during the first half of 2018 at the strongest pace in four years, yet retail sales gains have tapered off recently and the pace of homebuying has fallen outright. The sales totals over the next month will be a good indicator as to whether consumers simply paused to catch their breath or if they feel slightly less optimistic about the economy in 2019.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, is expecting holiday retail sales in November and December - excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants - to increase as much as 4.8 per cent over 2017 for a total of $720.89 billion. The sales growth marks a slowdown from last year’s 5.3 per cent, which was the largest gain since 2010. But the figure is still healthy.

The retail economy is also tilting steeply toward online shopping. Over the past 12 months, purchases at non-store retailers such as Amazon have jumped 12.1 per cent. Meanwhile, sales at traditional department stores have slumped 0.3 per cent.

“There’s major deals online so it’s hard to make a major effort to come to the store,” said Laura Duncan, a 39-year-old preschool teacher and mother of three from Costa Mesa, California. She was drawn to the mall Friday morning for the deals, and for the quiet of shopping without her still-sleeping kids.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks online retail spending, reported Thursday that Thanksgiving should reach a record $3.7 billion in online retail sales, up 29 per cent from the same year ago period.