US Black Friday sales start off weak
Online purchases projected to reach between $9b and $9.2b this season
Thin crowds of inflationweary consumers hunted for Black Friday deals at stores in big cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other locales, marking the start of a US holiday shopping season crucial to retailers in an uncertain economy. Many shoppers who opened their wallets said their purchases were strategic, not impulsive or splurges.
“We’ve been waiting” for discounts, said Tulio Rose, 28, who picked up a big-screen TV at a Best Buy store in Los Angeles, while shopping with Barnisha Nill, 35.
They saved about $500 on the 85-inch Samsung TV for their new apartment.
Shopping break
About 166 million people were planning to shop from Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday through this coming ‘Cyber Monday’, according to the National Retail Federation, almost eight million more than last year. But with sporadic rain in some parts of the country, stores were less busy than usual on Black Friday.
“Usually at this time of the year you struggle to find parking. This year, I haven’t had an issue getting a parking spot,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser of the NPD Group Inc.
“It’s a lot of social shopping, everybody is only looking to get what they need. There is no sense of urgency,” Cohen added, based on his store checks in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.At the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, there were no lines outside stores. A Toys ‘R’ Us employee was handing out flyers with a list of the Black Friday “door buster” promotions. At a Dollar Tree store in Rockville, Maryland, shoppers said they were looking for specific items or picking up household items like sodas and dish sponges.
Online sales will reach between $9 billion and $9.2 billion this Black Friday, a report from Adobe Analytics showed. The projection is slightly ahead of the company’s earlier forecast of $9 billion, which would represent a modest 1 per cent increase from last year.