Black Friday crowds thin in subdued start to U.S. holiday shopping

[marmar]

Crowds were thin at U.S. stores and shopping malls in the early hours of Black Friday and on Thanksgiving evening as shoppers responded to early holiday discounts with caution and bad weather hurt turnout.

Major retail stocks including Target and Wal-Mart fell in early trading.

Bargain hunters found relatively little competition compared with previous years. Some on Friday morning said they had already shopped online or visited the mall the night before. That reflects the new normal of U.S. holiday shopping, where stores open up with deals on Thanksgiving Thursday itself, rather than waiting until Black Friday.

In an effort to attract the most eager holiday shoppers and fend off competition from Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), U.S. retailers have increasingly extended their holiday deals by opening stores on the evening of Thanksgiving.

That has hurt Black Friday sales in previous years, a trend analysts expect will continue this year.

"We believe Thanksgiving shopping was a bust," analysts at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey said in a research note. "Members of our team who went to the malls first had no problem finding parking or navigating stores." ................(more)

Read more at Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/27/us-usa-holidayshopping-idUSKBN0TG19S20151127#tuyslVSxiwhgAfRF.99

[Rex]

1. .

[Lizzie Poppet]

2. Besides online competition and Thursday-evening openings...

...I think another thing that's hurt Black Friday shopping is that so many people have come to realize that the experience itself is absolutely horrific. Personally, I'd rather guzzle sewage than get anywhere near a big retail outlet today.

[Tracer]

3. My daughter decided to go shopping at midnight.

She had never done that before and swears she never will again.

More out of curiosity than need, she left the house at 11:00pm yesterday and drove an hour to an outlet mall.

She said that there was a half-mile backup at the exit to the mall! The crowds outside certain stores were in the hundreds (Coach, Uggs) and were only being let in the stores a few people at a time.

So the crowds elsewhere may have been "thin" --- but certainly weren't around here.

"Horrific experience" is a quite apt description.

[KittyWampus]

4. the older I get, the less willing I am to be anywheres large crowds are a certainty.