Sales for Target event more than double

As an indicator of just how unpredictable this holiday season will be, sales numbers for Target’s two-day Deal Days this week more than doubled, compared with last year.

The Deal Days coincided with Amazon’s Prime Day two-day event, plus big discounted pushes from Best Buy andWalmart.

The Minneapolis-based retailer said Friday that sales were 2.5 times what they were last year, when the big sales events were held in the summer.

The new statistics are a sign of the robust online shopping that analysts have predicted will dominate this holiday season as the U.S. continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.