Other indicators point toward a good day for department stores. And customers appeared to be nearing the end of their gift lists - in some cases, focusing instead on buying items for themselves.Īcross the board, she said, deals seemed hard to come by due to low inventory levels and inflation. Out-of-stocks were common among hard home goods and basic apparel items, such as denim and underwear. She had a few other observations, too: Traffic seemed stronger at malls versus off-mall locations. Weinswig, the CEO and founder of Coresight Research, said she overheard some shoppers commenting on bargains at JCPenney, a department store that was pushed to file for bankruptcy during the global health crisis. Retail analyst Deborah Weinswig noticed the stores had surprisingly strong amounts of foot traffic when she visited malls in the Providence, Rhode Island and Boston area. on Black Fridayĭepartment stores are getting some love from shoppers this Black Friday, after getting pummeled by the pandemic from lengthy closures and bankruptcies.
Stores make a comeback this holiday season.A rare sale at Peloton this Black Friday.Black Friday sales up 12.1% year over year, Mastercard says.On Thanksgiving, shoppers were buying the latest version of the Just Dance video game, Oculus Quest, Rainbow High Dolls, Rainbocorns and classic holiday items like Apple iPads and Nintendo's Switch, Adobe said. That would put sales during November and December at $843.4 billion and $859 billion.
Holiday sales are expected to climb at a record pace this year, with the National Retail Federation predicting an increase of between 8.5% and 10.5%. Still, that doesn't mean people aren't opening up their wallets. Overall consumer traffic was slow, Pressman said, and there were few to little doorbusters at major retailers. "There were no huge long lines, but you did see some folks that were lining up just in the spirit of hoping to get some type of deal," said Adam Pressman, a partner at AlixPartners, who was walking around shops in downtown Chicago earlier in the day. Notably, the activity at many shopping centers was more subdued and deals were harder to come by on Friday, experts say. This season is playing out much differently than those of the past, however. As the pace of shopper visits begins to dwindle at malls around the country on Black Friday, the holiday shopping season has officially kicked into high gear.