Is Black Friday dead? Obsolete, maybe. But not dead.



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What was true for Mark Twain also applies to Black Friday: information about his death was greatly exaggerated.

Yes, the significant discounts given to online shoppers across the Internet have diluted "all or nothing" door jammers in physical stores the day after Thanksgiving. But the frenetic shopping day has not dropped in popularity.

"Of course, I'm going to the store on Black Friday," said Donald Lewis, a resident of San Jose, who plans to purchase a 55-inch smart Samsung TV at Best Buy. "The crowds are ridiculous, but it's well worth it."

In the festive fashion of the end of the year, the parking lots will be congested, buyers will be waiting for long queues for the cash register and bargain hunters will fight over piles of messy clothing baskets.

And, despite the recent trend of retailers closing their doors on Thanksgiving as we move away from this second share of pumpkin pie, many stores are open Thursday in the entire Bay Area for those who can not wait for Friday.

Will you get up early with the Black Friday crowd to find a deal on a TV or computer? (File Photo by Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)

Do not worry if you've forgotten to take these marshmallows for the sweet potato casserole or Karo syrup for the pecan pie: Safeway will be open from 6 am to midnight, and some Whole Foods stores will let you in from 8 am and close at 8 o'clock. 22h If you want to go shopping after the big meal, Macy's, Best Buy and Kohl's will open at 5pm. – until past midnight for Macy's and Best Buy; Kohl stays open all night. If you can not find the charger for your phone, Fry's Electronics will be open from 9:00 to 13:00.

And the crowds will be back for Black Friday.

The number of people who left the stores last year has decreased slightly (4.5%) compared to the previous year, according to RetailNext. Online sales are increasing, but Adobe Analytics has recently discovered that over 50% of respondents in an online survey still want to reach the products they buy, especially the millennium.

Victoria Richards, 24, is one of them. She sailed Wednesday in Target's women's clothing department. She has already found good deals, but will probably go to a mall on Black Friday, she said.

"I just love fast, cheap fashion," she said, running her hand over a black basque blouse with small flowers. "We will see if we can get more offers."

That means parking lots could still be a nightmare, as 47% of people who order online would prefer to pick up their in-store purchases rather than resorting to one-day shipping, according to Adobe Analytics. Security is one of the reasons, people are worried about parcel theft.

Fortunately, one day or another, crowds may shrink as more and more retailers offer so-called "jammers", such as online devices, rather than requiring that people come to the store.

Some of them, including Home Depot and Lowe's, have already launched these sales, before the day. If they offer better deals than the ones currently offered, it's a "guessing game," said Sarah Hollenbeck of BlackFriday.com, but the additional cuts are unlikely to be so important. she added.

Marie, on the right, and Helen, from Benicia, who did not give their last names in Christmas trees at Sears at the Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California on Thursday, November 16, 2017. (Jane Tyska / Bay Area News Group)

Is it worth it to wait until Black Friday to do its shopping?

A study conducted last year by the nonprofit organization checkbook.org concluded that many expensive items at major retailers advertised as being on sale are dummy discounts, with the same price being called the price of sale more than half the time. For example, a LG 55-inch 1080p 120Hz Flat Panel TV (model # 55LF6000) that Target had reported as normally selling at $ 599.99 was "on sale" for 40 weeks out of 40, ranging from $ 474.99 and $ 499.99.

And in some stores, fake sales never end: in other words, the "regular price" on all of these price tags is rarely, if ever, the price that customers pay. Experts say the only way to know if you're paying a reasonable price is to compare prices on sites like Google Shopping and PriceWatch.

Nevertheless, Black Friday could remain the busiest day of the long holiday weekend. A survey conducted by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics found that 21% (34 million) of people planning to shop during the holiday weekend planned to shop on Thanksgiving day, but 71% (116 million ) at Black Friday. mouse or stores. Despite the stock market downturn, Adobe Analytics was still forecast Wednesday that purchases made during the November 1 holiday would be up 15% to more than $ 124 billion.

Customers wait in a long waiting line in the SunValley Mall Game Shop in Concord, California on Friday, November 25, 2011 at Black Friday, to shop for their favorite games. Some of the mall's stores opened at 12 noon, the rest of the stores opened at 5 am, as hundreds of shoppers moved into the city center, eager to shop for Christmas and get dressed. make good deals. (Dan Rosenstrauch / Staff)

But it's clear that buyers should not feel like they're missing if you decide to skip Black Friday balances. You can still wait another 48 hours for Cyber ​​Monday. That's when the big dough should arrive: Cyber ​​Monday is expected to yield $ 7.8 billion; Black Friday, $ 5.9 billion; and Thanksgiving, $ 3.3 billion.

"It will be a good year," said Kirthi Kalyanam, director of the Retail Management Institute at the University of Santa Clara, "for both consumers and retailers."

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