A ‘mellowed’ Black Friday, but shoppers still at stores
Major retailers move away from doorbusters; jump in order pickups
Even if she and her mom showed up at Southlake Mall a little later than she planned, Rachel Torralva appreciated a more relaxed Black Friday shopping experience.
“It’s less crowded than Chicago, that’s a good thing,” said Torralva, 18, of Hammond as she perused sunglasses and accessories at JCPenney.
“I’ve noticed that (Black Friday has) mellowed, which is good,” she said. “There’s (not) five people in one spot. It’s better not being like that.”
Crowds were comparable to recent years, as the retailer has run Black Friday deals earlier, said JCPenney store manager Jodi Ringler, who arrived at work on Friday at 4 a.m.
The store made extra hires for the holiday season and opened about 50% more registers. One thing that was different: online orders for store pickup jumped “dramatically,” she said.
Regardless of online shopping or multi-day deals, there’s always folks that want to shop at the store on Black Friday.
“I think there always will be,” Ringler said.
Gilbert Arroyo, of East Chicago, was combing the department store’s jewelry section.
Every year, he comes back to the mall on Black Friday looking for deals. He already bought some jeans and a jacket for himself and would hit up a few more stores, looking for a blender and an air fryer, he said.
“I already (bought) a bunch of stuff, and I have it in my trunk,” he said.
Becky Waugaman, of Lake
Station, and her daughter Kelly Dobrzynski, of Hobart, were having breakfast at Sophia’s House of Pancakes, then decided to do some shopping at the mall, she said. Waugaman was trying on rings and window shopping in the jewelry section.
They wanted to look “for some goods for ourselves,” she said, laughing.
Major retailers, including Walmart and Target, stuck with their pandemic-era decision to close stores on Thanksgiving Day,
moving away from doorbusters and instead pushing discounts on their websites.
Against today’s economic backdrop, the National Retail Federation — the largest retail trade group — expects holiday sales growth will slow to a range of 6% to 8%, from the blistering 13.5% growth of a year ago.
However, these figures, which include online spending, aren’t adjusted for inflation, so real spending could even be down from a year ago.
Adobe Analytics expects online sales to be up 2.5% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, a slowdown from the 8.6% pace last year, when shoppers were still uncertain about returning to physical stores.
Analysts consider the five-day Black Friday weekend, which includes Cyber Monday, a key barometer of shoppers’ willingness to spend, particularly this year. The two-month period between Thanksgiving and Christmas represents about 20% of the retail industry’s annual sales.