Shoppers out seeking deals; online sales set Black Friday record

Parking lots were full and shopping bags were plentiful in some places Saturday as holiday gift-seekers were out looking for bargains.

At the Woodbury Common outlets north of New York City, retail expert Craig R. Johnson was impressed by how many people were there — though crowds were not as heavy as several years ago before online shopping was such a draw.

“Some stores like Nike had like a hundred people in the checkout line,” said Johnson, president of consulting group Customer Growth Partners. “Virtually everyone there was carrying a bag — one or two or three or more.”

As shoppers said stores also seemed less crowded on Black Friday than in earlier years, data from Adobe Analytics, the research arm of software maker Adobe, showed that a record $5.03 billion was spent online by the end of the day, an increase of nearly 17 percent from a year earlier.

It said the top-selling items on Black Friday included the Nintendo Switch, Hatchimals Colleggtibles toys, PJ Masks items, LOL Surprise dolls, Ride On Cars, and Chromecast and Roku streaming devices.

In addition to the online effect, Johnson cited the fact that more stores are opening on Thanksgiving, and that is “pulling” traffic from the holiday weekend.

J.C. Penney stores opened at 2 p.m. Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than last year and at least three hours ahead of its department store rivals. Many stores offered deals online all week.

Research firm ShopperTrak said Saturday that preliminary data for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday found that shopper visits to brick-and-mortar stores declined a combined 1.6 percent when compared to the same days in 2016.

It said Black Friday 2017 shopper visits decreased less than 1 percent when compared to a year earlier, and that the decision by some stores to close on Thanksgiving this year helped shift customer visits to other days.

Shoppers are expected to spend at least 3.6 percent more in November and December than they did last holiday season — in line with last year’s bump. Johnson called that “good, solid” growth, though less than was the case in three boom years through 2006 when sales in the last two months of the year grew 6 percent or more.

At the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., parking lots were full Saturday.

Jason Noda, 29, bought a pair of boots for himself on sale at the plaza. He said he wasn’t “super impressed” with the sales Saturday, and said he buys mostly online but likes being at stores to get ideas.

“I like going to stores, but I can find anything online,” he said.