Customers used to wait outside in the cold for hours. Old ladies would fight over $2.99 bath towels. And there were heated arguments over the last available parking space.
Black Friday is not what it used to be – and perhaps a change for the better in some respects.
The convenience of online shopping, coupled with the ongoing COVID pandemic, figures to keep more and more customers out of physical stores on Black Friday and during this entire holiday season.
Black Friday version 2020 likely won’t be the throng of deal-crazed shoppers it was just a few short years ago.
A San Francisco-based retail consulting company called Standard conducted a survey of 1,038 U.S. consumers earlier this month. Among key findings of its survey:
• 36% will shop less in physical stores than last year
• 23% will shop exclusively online
• 68% said COVID was a factor in deciding how to shop
Walmart is fully aware of the changing retail trends. Said Walmart executive vice president Scott McCall, “I’m really excited that this year, when it matters most to our customers, we’re offering them more convenient and safer ways to shop Black Friday at Walmart, whether that’s from the shelf in one of our stores, ordering online and picking it up curbside, or having it delivered right to their front door.”
Walmart began its Black Friday deals in early November and spread them over three weekends, including this weekend where 65-inch Samsung smart TVs are on sale for $478.
Local resident Judy Patrick was among the customers taking advantage of TV sales. She was all smiles under her facemask as she loaded up a 50-inch Roku TV.
Justin Hillis, a wireless specialist in the electronics department of our local Walmart, says the store probably sells about two TVs an hour.
“I think Walmart has done a very good job of spacing Black Friday out over several weeks,” Hillis said.
Bath & Body Works at Three Star Mall is another major retailer which wanted to prevent shoppers from swarming the store all in one day. In hopes of providing more distance between customers, Bath & Body began offering its Black Friday door busters on Monday and is continuing the sale all week.
Lowe’s is having more of a traditional Black Friday event with items heavily discounted beginning Thanksgiving Day such as poinsettias marked down from $3.98 to 88 cents, and a pre-lit Christmas tree reduced from $298 to $158.
Tractor Supply Company is offering what it calls 5 Days of Black Friday with reduced prices that started on Tuesday and will continue until this Saturday.
