Inflation drives bargain hunt among Black Friday shoppers
Business
Inflation drives bargain hunt among Black Friday shoppers
LONDON (Reuters) - As retailers reopened their US stores after the American Thanksgiving holiday, some locations found small clusters of early Black Friday shoppers waiting outside stores for exclusive merchandise, such as Taylor Swift's new $39.99 Eras Tour book sold only at Target stores.
But several East Coast big-box store locations and shopping malls were relatively quiet before 9 am Eastern on Black Friday.
Hoss Moss, a 58-year-old chef from New Jersey, stood outside a Target store for the first time in 15 years to buy the Taylor Swift Eras Tour book for his teenage daughter.
"Black Friday is just not what it used to be," he said.
"Grocery prices are expensive and ... even clothing is not at a price you would get before." He said his family of four plans to spend $2,000 to $3,000 on gifts this year, mostly at Macy's and Lululemon.
Cristal Lopez was browsing the aisles of a North Bergen, New Jersey, Walmart Supercenter, which was relatively empty at 7 a.m. Walmart employees were milling about, organizing merchandise and getting ready for the day.
Meituan posted a bigger-than-expected rise in third-quarter revenue on Friday.
Pushing a full cart of items of clothing and a couple of sling tote bags, Lopez said she was looking for holiday clothes for her two kids. She said she will spend about $1,000 to $2,000 total - same as last year - buying mostly clothing. “I find the prices pretty much same as last year,” she said, adding that she still had some shopping to do to finish her holiday list.
Shoppers are expected to buy more merchandise using mobile phones and laptops on Black Friday. US shoppers are expected to spend $10.8 billion online, up nearly 10% from a year ago, according to projections from Adobe Analytics, which keeps track of devices that use Adobe's software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to US retail sites.
