Black Friday shopping is off to a slow start as inflation soars

Inflation weighs heavier on buyers this Black Friday than last night’s turkey.

In Chesterfield, Missouri, no customers lined the barricades set up outside Best Buy Thursday night in anticipation of queues for doorbuster deals.

“I don’t see anything. I’m surprised,” Jeremy Pritchett told Fox2Now. “Usually it’s wrapped around the building, today nobody.”

Sky-high prices for groceries, rent, gas and other household expenses have taken a toll on consumers, making many reluctant to spend unless there’s a big sale and becoming more selective about what they buy – in many cases, the trade in cheaper things and less expensive stores.

Cash-strapped customers are also making greater use of their savings, increasingly turning to “buy now, pay later” services like Afterpay, which allow users to pay for items in installments and top up their credit cards.

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Such financial difficulties could contribute to shoppers looking for discounts as the holiday shopping season begins.

Isela Dalencia, who shopped for household items like laundry detergent at a Walmart in Secaucus, N.J. earlier this week, said she’s putting off buying Christmas gifts until Cyber ​​Monday — the Monday after Thanksgiving — when online sales pick up.

Then again, she’ll wait until the week before Christmas to get the best deals, unlike last year when she started shopping before Black Friday.

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“I’m shopping less,” Dalencia said, noting that she’ll be spending about $700 on Christmas gifts this year, a third less than last year.

Katie Leach, a social worker in Manhattan, was also browsing the aisles of Walmart but said she will start Christmas shopping as usual the first week of December.

This time, however, she’ll rely more on discounts, her credit card, and “buy now, pay later” services to get her through the shopping season as the prices of groceries and other necessities soar.

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“The money doesn’t go as far as it did last year,” Leach said.

Many shoppers like Lolita Cordero from Brooklyn, New York, sit on Black Friday.

“I shop early and try to get things on sale, discount or sale — and I use coupons,” Cordero said. “I’ve never done Black Friday. I heard it’s a mess and people are getting hurt.”

This year’s trends contrast with a year ago, when consumers bought early because they feared they wouldn’t be able to get what they needed due to supply chain issues. Stores didn’t have to slash prices sharply because they were struggling to introduce items.

But some pandemic habits remain. Many retailers that closed stores on Thanksgiving Day and instead offered discounts on their websites to thin out the crowds at their brick-and-mortar locations continued to do so this year, despite a return to normalcy.

Big retailers like Walmart and Target closed their stores again on Thanksgiving. And many moved away from door breakers, the heavily discounted items offered for a limited time that often drew unruly crowds, leading to scenes of chaos on Black Friday.

Instead, the discounted items are available throughout the month on Black Friday or the bank holiday weekend.

In today’s economic backdrop, the National Retail Federation — the largest retail group — expects holiday sales growth to slow to a range of 6% to 8% from last year’s 13.5% growth.

However, these figures, which include online spending, are not adjusted for inflation, so real spending could even be lower than a year ago.

Adobe Analytics expects online sales to grow 2.5% from November 1 to December 31, slowing down from the 8.6% pace last year when shoppers were unsure whether to buy physical stores would return.

Analysts are looking at the five-day Black Friday weekend, which includes Cyber ​​Monday, as an important barometer of shoppers’ willingness to buy, especially this year. The two months between Thanksgiving and Christmas account for about 20% of annual retail sales.

With mail wires