This Black Friday Currys was getting two orders every second, with people buying 96 Airpods and 84 Xbox One Ss a minute, online.
Over at Amazon, by 8am bargain hunters had bagged more than 90,000 books and over 70,000 sports products.
By contrast, high street stores and shopping centres have been deserted.
Harriet Bradley, 33, who headed to Birmingham city centre to shop, said: "It was dead on the train and its dead in the city centre.
"I was really surprised but its brilliant. You've almost got a free run of all the shops and there's some great deals to be had.
"I guess a lot of people do it online and it can get manic around here over Christmas. I'm trying to fit all my shopping in before its gets too busy."
Lina Carter, 39, a full-time mum from Sheldon, Birmingham, said: “I’m doing normal Christmas shopping for my five kids. It’s an expensive time of the year.
“I’m surprised by how quiet it is. I was expecting it to be manic like last year.
“I prefer going to the shop because you don’t know what you’re getting online.
“It looks like the best time of the year to buy stuff because it’s basically 20% off in every shop.”
Post office worker Jeremy Pinkston, 49, of Newtown, Birmingham, added: "I've bought my son some trainers from JD Sport, there was 50% of.
"Some of Nexts clothes were 70% off as well, so I've snapped up a few bargains already and I didn't need to wrestle through crowds of shoppers to get them.
"Its been the quietest Black Friday I've seen so far, usually you can't get through the doors."
But online it's a different story.
Figures from hotukdeals found 85% of shoppers were planning to hunt for bargains online instead of hitting the high street.
And most of the time that deal hunt is happening from phones.
"Shoppers are increasingly bagging a bargain over the Black Friday period on their smartphones, with 63% of all online purchases made by mobile devices," Currys explained.
And overall, it looks like sales could be up - with Brits forecast to spend £182 each according figures from ProtectYourBubble .
John Lewis said its busiest shopping hour was between 9am and 10am, with LEGO, iPads and Airpods the things most in demand.
By 10am Barclaycard, which processes nearly £1 in every £3 spent in the UK, was seeing a 12.5% increase compared to the same period on Black Friday last year.
Rob Cameron from Barclaycard Payments said: “Over the past couple of years we have seen an increase in the volume of transactions on Black Friday."
He added: "This is fantastic news for retailers, with our data showing that transactions have also been strong throughout the week of Black Friday.
"With many retailers spreading their deals out throughout the week, they will be encouraged to see this hasn’t cannibalised sales volumes on Black Friday itself.”
