CLARKSBURG, Md. — Shoppers in Maryland hit the stores at Clarksburg Premium Outlets as soon as the doors opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and stores there will remain open until 10 p.m. Friday as customers search for Black Friday bargains.
Thanksgiving weekend, when stores compete to attract shoppers, can be an indication of how well they’ll do through the season.
Black Friday itself has morphed from a single day when people got up early to score door busters into a whole season of deals, so shoppers may feel less inclined to go out the day after Thanksgiving.
“It’s an annual tradition,” one Clarksburg shopper told WTOP about going out early on Black Friday.
Another said it was a new experience.
“I have never shopped on Black Friday,” she said. “It’s my first time ever.”
With the unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent and consumer confidence stronger than it was a year ago, analysts project healthy sales increases for November and December.
The National Retail Federation expects sales for that period to at least match last year’s rise of 3.6 percent and estimates online spending and other non-store sales will rise 11 to 15 percent.
About 69 percent of Americans, or 164 million people, intend to shop at some point during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to a survey released by the NRF.
It expects Black Friday to remain the busiest day, with about 115 million people planning to shop then.
Despite the early crowds at stores, analysts at Bain say Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday season’s sales growth. And Amazon is the top destination for people to begin holiday shopping, according to a September study by market research firm NPD Group.
“The retailers are in survival mode. It’s about stealing each other’s market share,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD. “Amazon is the Grinch. They’re stealing the growth.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
