Black Friday shoppers hunt for bargains amid inflation concerns

Brushing snowflakes off her hair, Teagan Hickson walked into a Walmart WMT.N Supercenter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with hopes of picking up a few holiday deals on Black Friday. The first thing the mother of two spotted: A pallet stacked high with Gourmia digital air fryer ovens for $50 each.
Her sister Jordan had been wanting one, she said, but money was tight right now for everyone in her family. She worried about expenses next year, after reading posts on Facebook about price hikes if President-elect Donald Trump’s planned tariffs go into effect in January.
“I’m trying to not spend too much,” said Hickson, 43. “I don’t want to add to my credit cards, but I don’t want to pay more for stuff next year.”
As retailers reopened U.S. stores after the American Thanksgiving holiday, some locations drew clusters of shoppers. People were eager to see stores’ Black Friday discounts, often comparing them to rivals’ prices for similar merchandise online.
Weighing on the minds of many Americans: Should prices rise in 2025 as a result of Trump’s move to implement new tariffs on some U.S. imports, consumers like Hickson could feel impact at grocery stores and restaurants, potentially driving up their living costs.
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At the Walmart, Hickson called her husband Josh, who was sitting in front of his computer at home and ready to compare prices in the store with what they could find online.
“Baby, this looks pretty nice,” she told Josh. “What’s it online?” A few seconds later, Josh found a similar model on Amazon AMZN.O for double the price. She grabbed a box, put it in her cart, and headed deeper into the big-box store.
Walmart, which operates 4,700 U.S. stores, this year is offering a variety of deals on Samsung TVs, Dyson vacuum cleaners, Lego and Hot Wheels toys, Levi’s jeans, and air fryers, although its pre-Black Friday discounts began on Nov. 11.
Cristal Lopez pushed a cart full of clothing and a couple of sling tote bags through the aisles of a North Bergen, New Jersey, Walmart Supercenter, looking for holiday clothes for her two kids. “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. She intends to spend $1,000 to $2,000 total – same as last year – mostly on clothing.
Shoppers were expected to buy more merchandise using mobile phones and laptops on Friday. U.S. shoppers were 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  U.S. retail sites.
People looking to upgrade their TVs may find the best deals on Friday, with discounts peaking at 24% off listed price, according to Adobe’s analysis of retailers’ online prices.
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Still, the U.S. retail trade group the National Retail Federation expects roughly 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million last year. Shoppers have only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, against a more leisurely 31 days last year.
Adding pressure for retailers is inflation-fatigued shoppers’ reluctance to splurge unless they get good deals.
“With fewer days to shop, consumers are more likely to make spontaneous purchases, contributing to retail growth during the holiday season,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at Circana, a research firm.
Evelyn Contre, 49, waited in a 20-person line at a Lululemon LULU.O store with her two daughters. Contre had already browsed the websites of Abercrombie ANF.N and Lululemon on Thursday for Black Friday deals before heading into Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday.
Crowds were sparse early at a Macy’s M.Nstore in Santa Barbara, California despite Black Friday discounts reaching 50% for home goods and apparel and an early opening of 7 am, three hours earlier than typical.
John Dillard, 66, was shopping for Levi’s 504 jeans that he said his daughter had suggested for him. Macy’s was offering them for 40% off their usual $60 price. Dillard, a local retiree, said he was planning to attend a holiday party and needed new duds for the occasion.
Dillard, who said he had already bought men’s dress pants at Macy’s that were discounted to $35 from $95 and a pair of black men’s dress shoes for just $25, said he typically eschews in-store shopping to avoid the crowds. Deals were important to him because he planned to only buy what he needed for the party. “How often am I going to wear these clothes?” he said.
Nineteen-year-old Nico Carrillo, a student at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, home visiting his parents for the Thanksgiving holiday, said he came early expecting crowds at Macy’s. “I am a bit surprised because there’s really not a lot of people here,” he said.
Target TGT.N cut prices by $100 on products such as a 75-inch Westinghouse TV and Nintendo Switch gaming console, and took more than 50% off Barbie dolls, Keurig coffee machines and KitchenAid mixers, deals which started on Thanksgiving and run through Saturday.
The retailer is selling a new Taylor Swift Eras Tour book, and exclusive “Wicked”-related products, including “Wicked” soundtrack CDs for $39.99, with an offer of buy two, get one free for Target Circle members.
“Black Friday is just not what it used to be,” said Hoss Moss, a 58-year-old chef from New Jersey, who stood outside a Target store for the first time in 15 years to buy Swift’s book for his teenage daughter.
“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 M.Nand Lululemon LULU.O.
Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in North Bergen, New Jersey; Arriana McLymore in Raleigh, N.C.; P.J. Huffstutter in Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Greg Bensinger in Santa Barbara, California. Editing by Nick Zieminski.
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