Is Black Friday still holiday shopping juggernaut in 2024?

After weeks of pushing early deals, retailers in the United States and some other countries tried to seduce customers with promises of bigger discounts on Black Friday, the sales event that still reigns as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season even if it’s lost some luster. Department stores, shopping malls and merchants — big and small — see the day after Thanksgiving as a way to energize shoppers and to get them into physical stores at a time when many do the bulk of their browsing and buying online. Enough consumers enjoy holiday shopping in person that Black Friday remains the biggest day of the year for retail foot traffic in the US, according to retail technology company Sensormatic Solutions.

“Black Friday is still an incredibly important day for retailers,” Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic, said. “It’s important for them to be able to get shoppers into their store to show them that experience of what it’s like to browse and touch and feel items.” At Macy’s Herald Square in Manhattan, a steady stream of shoppers early Friday found some shoes and handbags priced half-off, special occasion dresses marked down by 30%, and 60% off the store’s luxury bedding brand. Keressa Clark, 50, and her daughter Morghan, 27, who were visiting New York from Wilmington, North Carolina, arrived at 6:15am at the store that served as the setting for the 1947 Christmas movie “Miracle on 34th Street.”

“We don’t have a Macy’s where we are from. I am actually shocked to see so many Black Friday deals because so many things are online,” Morghan Clark said. Clark, who works as a nurse practitioner, said she was feeling better about the economy because of President-elect Donald Trump’s pending return to the White House and plans to spend $2,000 this holiday season, about $500 more than a year ago. She said she would not mind if prices are higher next year as a result of the tariffs on foreign-made goods Trump has pledged to implement. “Anything that can encourage production in the U.S. I am all for it, “ Clark said. In the US, analysts envision a solid holiday shopping season, though perhaps not as robust as last year’s, with many shoppers cautious with their discretionary spending despite the easing of inflation.

At many stores, the frenzied crowds of Black Fridays past never returned after the coronavirus pandemic. Early Friday morning, a Walmart in Germantown, Maryland, had only half of the parking spots filled. Some shoppers were returning items or doing their routine grocery shopping. Bharatharaj Moruejsan, a 35-year-old software engineer, said he typically doesn’t shop on Black Friday but decided to check out the deals at Walmart because he was jet-lagged after returning from a month-long family vacation to India. He scored an iPad for his 1-year-old daughter for $250 compared to the original $370 price tag. “That’s a good deal,” Moruejsan said.

Retailers are even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.Target had an exclusive book devoted to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and a bonus edition of her “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” album that it said would only be available in stores on Black Friday. Customers can buy them online starting Saturday. Best Buy has introduced an extended-release version of the doorbuster, the limited-time daily discounts that for years were the rage and sometimes sparked brawls. The nation’s largest consumer electronics chain has released doorbuster deals every Friday since Nov. 8 and planned to continue the weekly promotion through Dec. 20. Impulse purchases and self-gifting were potential areas for big sales growth, said Marshal Cohen, chief retail advisor at market research firm Circana. Shoppers are three times more likely to buy on impulse at a physical store than online, according to Circana research. Tara Rutherford, 53, headed straight to Macy’s Herald Square to shop for herself after finishing her overnight nursing shift at a Manhattan hospital. A newlywed, Rutherford said she rarely shops on Black Friday because of her work schedule but was “feeling festive.” “This is all about me,” she said, eyeing boots that carried a 40% discount.

Black Friday no longer is an American-only holiday event. Retailers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. also appealed to holiday shoppers looking to save money. In India, about 200 Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers, rallied Friday in New Delhi, some wearing masks of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, to demand better wages and working conditions. Similar protests were planned in other countries. Camilla Bjorkqvist, 48, and her friend Tessa Goosens, 48, were visiting New York from the Netherlands to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with friends and to shop at Macy’s. Even though Black Friday has become a commercial event in The Netherlands, the women said it’s not the same. “Macy’s is special. It’s iconic,” said Goosens, who bought a Samsonite suitcase and a suit for work on sale. The National Retail Federation predicted that shoppers would increase their spending in November and December by between 2.5% and 3.5% over the same period a year ago.