CHICAGO _ Black Friday may be losing steam, but plenty of shoppers still put down their turkey dinners in time to nab door-buster deals.
A few hours after door-buster sales kicked off Thursday evening, Target CEO Brian Cornell said he was encouraged by early sales both in stores and online, where Target saw double-digit growth and set a new sales record.
"The most encouraging trend I'm seeing is while guests were in our stores shopping for our big door-buster items, they continued to shop multiple categories," Cornell said.
Apple products were popular and hoverboards were "red-hot," he said.
"Every year we hear Black Friday won't be that big, and every year, it's big," said Hudson's Bay Co. CEO Jerry Storch.
By 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving, shoppers had spent $1.15 billion online, up 13.6 percent over last year, according to Adobe Digital Insights, which also found retailers were rolling out deals earlier and with larger discounts on items like tablets and toys.
Black Friday, historically the starting line of the retail industry's crucial holiday buying season, isn't quite the one-day spree it used to be. Some retailers have pushed their biggest Black Friday door-buster deals into Thanksgiving Day and spread other promotions to even earlier in the season. Many of the deals are also available online.
Of the 65 percent of U.S. consumers who plan to shop on Black Friday, 53 percent will buy online, with the rest spending at brick-and-mortar stores, according to an Accenture survey. Many will combine the two, checking prices on a smartphone while browsing store aisles or researching items online before heading to a store to make the purchase.
"We recognize more and more it needs to be all channels, in store and online," Storch said. "We always love it when (a shopper) comes to the store, but if that's not her choice, we can't force her to."
People shopping on mobile devices spent a record $449 million on Thanksgiving, up nearly 60 percent over last year, according to Adobe, which principal analyst and director Tamara Gaffney attributed in part to consumers surreptitiously clicking "buy" at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Shoppers who lined up outside H&M on Chicago's retail-heavy Michigan Avenue around 5:30 a.m. Friday said the early hours and crowds are worth it for deals they can get only in stores.
"They're giving out gift cards, right?" Linda Gross asked Gerry Soltis, as they waited in line.
"They better," Soltis said. Gross, her sister, Glenda, and Soltis all came to H&M hoping the fast-fashion retailer would again hand out scratch-off cards with deals for early-arriving shoppers. Each had won $100 or more on previous Black Fridays and were disappointed when an employee came out to tell customers lining up that the store wouldn't be handing out the cards this year. But no one immediately abandoned the line.
"Maybe they'll still have some little thing," Soltis said.
Marilu Garciacelis, 41, and her sister arrived at an area shopping plaza about 6 a.m. Friday to snag deals on clothes. Black Friday shopping is a highlight of her sister's holiday trip each year from Mexico to the U.S. For each of the 10 years they've been Black Friday shopping together, she's stuffed her suitcase with the spoils.
"It's kind of fun that nobody is around," said Garciacelis, as the crowd at Kohl's steadily grew. They anticipated they'd probably spend about four hours shopping before heading home for leftovers.
Shoppers are expected to shell out $655.8 billion this holiday season, up 3.6 percent over last year, according to industry trade group the National Retail Federation.
Additional data on Thanksgiving and Black Friday spending and store traffic won't be available until later this weekend, but retail analysts predicted a moderate uptick in spending this season, citing low unemployment, a recent ramp-up in retail sales and rising consumer confidence.
Still unknown is whether a contentious and divisive presidential election will tighten or loosen consumers' grips on their wallets. But some retailers were optimistic the end of the campaign meant consumers would no longer be distracted by politics.
"Especially with the election, this is when people get refocused on the holidays," said Toys R Us CEO David Brandon.
