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Todd McLemore woke his two sons before dawn to take them to Black Friday for the first time.
The Cypress resident was generally shopping online, but had to travel to the Academy Sports + Outdoors on Friday morning to buy camouflage jackets from the boys and the Labrador Retriever before a family duck hunting trip this week. -end. McLemore, a first customer of Black Friday, bought a Magellan brand camouflage for a half-price deal, saving him about $ 150.
"Black Friday is not as hectic as I thought," said McLemore.
His son, Sam, looking a little disappointed, added, "I thought there would be fights."
Residents of the Houston area and the country went shopping on Black Friday – often early in the morning – attracted by some of the biggest discounts of the year. Despite the boom in e-commerce and offers throughout the year, many consumers have always visited malls during one of the largest shopping days of the year. ;year.
Money in their pockets
According to the National Retail Federation, about 164 million Americans plan to shop in-store and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The majority of consumers – 116.4 million – are expected to shop on Black Friday this year, up slightly from 115.7 million last year.
"Consumers have the feeling that the economy is strong because they have more money in their pockets thanks to tax reform and wage increases since the recession," said Ana Serafin Smith , spokesman for the retailers association. "We think it will be a strong holiday for retailers and consumers."
About 500 buyers waited outside the target, near Interstate 10, near Sawyer Heights, before opening at 5 pm. on Thanksgiving, eager to take advantage of deals on televisions, electronics and toys, said Cameron Dennington, chief of the operations management team. Further northwest, shoppers waited up to three hours outside the Tory Burch store at the Houston Premium Outlets early Friday morning to enjoy a 50% discount on handbags, shoes and shoes. accessories. Similar crowds were seen at the Katy Mills Mall on the west side.
At the Academy store in Cypress, shoppers began queuing around 3:30 pm on Friday. When the doors opened at 5 am, a crowd of about 50 people was waiting, eager to get in and shop.
Store manager Scott Kruse said he was not surprised by the crowd, which he thought was a little bigger than last year. Many buyers have been attracted by discounts on sportswear and equipment, as well as firearms, which the Academy does not sell online, he said.
"Black Friday is a tradition," said Kruse. "A lot of people make it a family event. I do not think that will ever go away. "
But Black Friday is not the same weight as it used to be when the holiday shopping season really began the day after Thanksgiving. Today, some retailers, such as Target, Walmart and Best Buy, are opening to Thanksgiving.
Many other stores offer significant discounts well before Black Friday to attract customers to an increasingly competitive market. Kohl's, for example, organized a one-day "Black Friday" event on November 1 and began offering Black Friday offers earlier in the week.
Meaning decreasing
These trends, along with the growth of online shopping, mean that Black Friday is no longer an indicator of the holiday shopping season.
On Black Friday, online spending reached $ 5 billion, up nearly 17% from 2016, according to Adobe Digital Insights, a market research firm. This year, Black Friday online sales are expected to be more than $ 6.4 billion, almost Cyber Monday of last year – the biggest online shopping day of the year.
"The importance of Black Friday as a single day is dwindling and could disappear in a few years," said Venky Shankar, research director at the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A & M University. "Millennia recognize cyber Monday more than black Friday."
For hardcore bargain hunters, getting to the mall at dawn on Friday offers two more things that buying online just can not do: a rush of adrenaline and a chance to hang out with it. family while queuing or picking up bargain baskets.
"There is an experience behind all this, instead of doing it alone, all by yourself," said Ashley Reichert, 31, of Westchase, who went shopping at her sister's at Galleria Friday.
Houston Black Friday has attracted buyers from all over.
Rita Coker, 48, and her 22-year-old daughter, Madison Goolsby, left Bryan on Friday morning to travel to Houston to enjoy the wider range of stores. Ssu Ling Chen, a 27-year-old air hostess from Taiwanese airline Eva Air, specifically asked for a connection between Taiwan and Houston, just to be able to shop here on Black Friday.
Chen and his flight crew colleagues took a Lyft from their hotel located in the Galleria neighborhood at the Houston Premium Outlets early Friday morning to buy gifts for their families in Asia.
"My family, they have made a lot of requests," please, buy them, "Chen said, adding that she had brought an extra suitcase for family-oriented gifts.
Black beats red
Over the past 10 years, Dennis Navarro has been returning every two months from his native Honduras to Houston to visit his family and supply tactical and camouflage equipment of a value of $ 5,000 at Columbia Sportswear and Academy stores for sale in his outdoor clothing store in Honduras. called Inasa. On Black Friday, however, the dealer spends $ 2,000 more to take advantage of Black Friday discounts.
Honduras has a similar holiday on Black Friday, called Semana Rojo's End, or "Red Weekend," but the cuts are not as deep., Navarro said.
"It's a little tedious," Navarro said of Black Friday night shopping in the United States. "But it's worth it."
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