Black Friday Shoppers Worry About Economy as Retailers Push Sales

“I have to budget more,” she said. “I have to catch the sales more.”

Eighty percent of holiday shoppers are likely to make a purchase from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, according to a survey from Bankrate. People shopping online pulled out their wallets on Thanksgiving Day as well, with sales up 2.9 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online sales. Adobe estimated that online spending for the holiday season would increase 2.5 percent from last year. It said it had calculated that online prices were down 0.7 percent in October compared with last year, largely because of early holiday deals, though they rose 0.3 percent from September.

On Friday, bargain-hunting shoppers definitely seemed to have the power. Stores posted signs advertising 50 to 60 percent off items. At a Target in Springfield, Ill., shoppers walked around with 65-inch televisions in shopping carts, and some wore matching T-shirts that said “Gather, gobble and shop.”

In San Francisco’s Union Square, it was relatively quiet. By 7 a.m., when the line outside Macy’s had dissipated, it felt “more or less like a normal day,” said Clifford Cheng, a retail associate at the store.

At a nearby Neiman Marcus, only about a dozen shoppers waited outside ahead of the store’s 9 a.m. opening. Natali Carrasco, 20, and Batechaa Steele, 20, were first-time Black Friday shoppers at the luxury department store.

“We always come and shop here, but we always buy full price, so we wanted to see the sales,” Ms. Carrasco said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/business/black-friday-shopping.html