Retailers coax Black Friday shoppers into stores with big discounts and giveaways

NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers used giveaways and big discounts to reward U.S. shoppers who ventured out for Black Friday even as earlier offers, the prospect of better bargains in the days ahead and the ease of e-commerce drained much of the excitement from the holiday shopping season's much-hyped kickoff.

Frequent deals throughout the month and more awaiting on Cyber Monday gave consumers less of a reason to squabble over store shelves while trying to get their hands on TVs or toys. But shopping malls and merchants big and small used the day after Thanksgiving to entice customers into physical stores at a time when many prefer to browse and buy online.

Some Target shoppers lined up as early as 11:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to get their hands on an exclusive book devoted to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and a bonus edition of her “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” album. Although both will be available purchase online starting Saturday, many locations sold out their supply of the products, the discount retailer said.

At a Target in Southfield, Michigan, a few miles north of Detroit, Marge Evans, 32, used her cellphone to take and send photos of shirts, sweaters and other apparel with Black Friday markdowns. Her shopping cart was full, but she was shopping for an upcoming cruise with her fiance, not Christmas.

“I’ll see what things are looking like the first week in January,” the 32-year-old massage therapist said. “Really, after the holidays are over is when the real deals come through. They get rid of everything.”

Industry analysts observed Black Friday shoppers displaying the same choosy, deal-driven behavior many U.S. consumers exhibited all year while adjusting prices after the period of inflation that started toward the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

At many stores, the huge crowds of Black Fridays past never returned after the pandemic. A Walmart in Germantown, Maryland, had only half of the parking spots filled on Friday morning. Some shoppers were returning items or buying groceries.

Bharatharaj Moruejsan, a 35-year-old software engineer, decided to check out Walmart's offers 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, 32% off its original $370 price tag.

“That’s a good deal,” Moruejsan said.

After visiting stores and shopping centers on Long Island, Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at market research firm Circana, said that apart from people lining up for Target's Taylor Swift merchandise, the number of shoppers appeared typical.

“The spreading out of the holidays has created the lack of need and lack of urgency,” said Cohen, who had a 20-person team monitoring crowds nationwide. “This is going to be a long, slow tedious process” of getting shoppers to buy, he said.

Michael Brown, a partner at management consulting firm Kearney, saw no lines at the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, 10 minutes before the 7 a.m. opening.

“It’s not the old Black Friday that we used to know,” he said.

Retailers that offered at least 40% off drove shoppers’ attention, according to Brown. For example, Forever 21 had 50% to 70% discounts and had lines to the stores, while H&M, which offered 30% discounts, was relatively quiet.

Enough consumers still enjoy holiday shopping in person that Black Friday nonetheless was expected to retain its crown remains the biggest day of the year for retail foot traffic in the U.S., according to retail technology company Sensormatic Solutions.

At Macy’s Herald Square in Manhattan, the setting for the 1947 Christmas movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” 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 6:15 a.m.

“I am actually shocked to see so many Black Friday deals because so many things are online,” Morghan Clark said.

Karessa Clark, who works as a nurse practitioner, said President-elect Donald Trump’s pending return to the White House made her feel better about the economy. She plans to spend $2,000 this holiday season, about $500 more than a year ago.

Julie Rambo, a retired school teacher, shoved aside her worries about the incoming Trump administration as she shopped with her grandchildren at the Target in Southfield, Michigan.

Rambo, 74, said she was “totally, completely scared of tariffs because I’m still going to need an automobile,” but it was a problem to confront later. As she does each year, she was primarily looking for Christmas gifts through a prison ministry for children with parents who are incarcerated.

“As we’re shopping, we find things for ourselves too,” Rambo said.

Online sales figures from Thanksgiving Day gave retailers a reason to remain hopeful for a lucrative end to the year.

Vivek Pandya, the lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said consumers spent a record $6.1 billion online Thursday, 8.8% more than on Thanksgiving last year. Bigger-than-expected discounts helped spur spending on electronics, apparel and other categories, Pandya said.

Across the board, Black Friday weekend discounts should peak at 30% on Cyber Monday and then retreat to around 15%, according to Adobe’s research.

Analysts forecast a solid holiday shopping season overall in the U.S., though perhaps not as robust as last year. Retailers were 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.

Shoppers at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie, Louisiana, were treated to a glass of champagne and a $50 gift receipt.

“This is a nice touch. I was just talking to my best friend and rehashing over Thanksgiving so this was a nice little treat after that conversation. Everyone needs a little drink,” said Faren Kennedy, a Houston resident who was in town visiting family and wanted to stop at the mall for the nostalgia of Black Friday shopping.

At Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, some 13,000 people showed up the first hour of its 7 a.m. opening, roughly 1,000 more than a year ago, according to Jill Renslow, the mall’s chief business development and marketing officer.

The mall was on target to exceed the 200,000 Black Friday customer visits it received in 2023, Renslow said. Stores with deep discounts and promotions were the most packed, she said, citing Lego’s giveaway of a free retro record player with a $250 purchase.

Stephen Lebovitz, CEO of CBL Properties, which operates 85 shopping properties, and Bill Taubman, president and chief operating officer of upscale mall landlord Taubman Realty Group, also said customer visits were up.

Black Friday no longer is an American-only sales 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.

Hadero reported from Germantown, Maryland. Stephen Smith in New Orleans and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this story.

Shoppers take advantage of Black Friday deals in Montreal on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press via AP)

A large advertisement for Prada stands as shoppers walk along Fifth Avenue, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

A group of shoppers take a selfie outside Macy's Herald Square, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

A shopper holds multiple bags while outside Macy's Herald Square, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Shoppers take photos outside Macy's Herald Square, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Shoppers manage their bags as they enter a Subway turnstile, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Shoppers take advantage of Black Friday deals in Montreal on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press via AP)

A Sport Expert's employee walks past a sign advertising Black Friday sales in Montreal on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press via AP)

Shoppers walk along Fifth Avenue, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Shoppers walk along Fifth Avenue, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

People carry shopping bags as they walk along Fifth Avenue, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

A participant wears a paper mask in the likeness of Amazon's Jeff Bezos as warehouse workers and delivery drivers stage a protest against the Seattle-based company demanding higher wages and better working conditions, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Early Black Friday shoppers line up outside stores at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

To mark the Black Friday discount day, around 400 to 500 Amazon employees from Germany joined colleagues from the USA, Sweden, the UK and Italy at the international protest center in Bad Hersfeld,Germany, and took part in the central strike meeting in the Schilde Hall, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Christian Lademann/dpa via AP)

An early Black Friday shopper uses a smartphone flashlight to locate a store at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Early Black Friday shoppers are silhouetted as they wait in line to enter a store at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Early Black Friday shoppers line up outside stores at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

An aerial view shows a packed parking lot at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, as early Black Friday shoppers arrive at the mall. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A woman walks a dog in a street of Mayfair at sunrise, in London, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People walk by sale signs on the shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A shopper passes a store advertising a Black Friday Sale on Regent Street in London, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

People window shop in Bryant Park's Winter Village, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A shopper looks at handbags at Macy's department store on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

FILE - Shoppers and others walk down a crowded sidewalk on Black Friday in the Soho neighborhood of New York, Nov. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)

Items on sale for $5 are displayed at a Five Below store on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

Items on sale for Black Friday are displayed at Macy's department store on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

Shoppers pass a Christmas tree at the Bergdorf Goodman store on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Anne D'Innocenzio)

A sign promoting Black Friday deals sits on table with a display of mirrorless cameras in a Best Buy store Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in south Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong homered and drove in a career-high six runs, helping the Chicago Cubs beat the Chicago White Sox 13-3 on Friday in the first meeting of the season between the crosstown rivals.

Seiya Suzuki had two hits and two RBIs for the NL Central-leading Cubs on a warm and windy afternoon at Wrigley Field. Nico Hoerner scored three times, and Cade Horton (2-0) pitched five innings of three-run ball in his first career start.

The Cubs earned their sixth consecutive win against the White Sox, matching a franchise record for the series.

Miguel Vargas went deep twice for the White Sox in his first career multihomer game. He also matched a career high with four hits.

Vargas connected for a two-run drive in the first and a solo drive in the third. But the Cubs went ahead to stay with six runs in the second against Shane Smith (1-3).

With one out and runners on second and third, Michael Busch used a nifty slide to score on Moisés Ballesteros' chopper to first baseman Andrew Vaughn. Hoerner then hit a grounder to shortstop Chase Meidroth, who made a strong throw to the plate that was dropped by catcher Matt Thaiss for an error.

After Jon Berti struck out looking, Crow-Armstrong hit a three-run drive to right for his 12th homer. Suzuki tacked on an RBI double for a 6-2 lead.

Smith was charged with one earned run and seven hits in five innings. The rookie right-hander struck out five and walked one.

Crow-Armstrong also drove in Hoerner with a wind-aided single in the sixth, and then singled home two more runs in the seventh for a 10-3 lead.

Ballesteros hit an RBI single in the eighth for his first hit in his second major league game.

Smith has surrendered two homers in 48 1/3 innings in his first big league season. He allowed a three-run shot by Boston's Rafael Devers on April 19.

White Sox right-hander Sean Burke (2-4, 4.15 ERA) and Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd (3-2, 2.78 ERA) take the mound on Saturday.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Chicago White Sox's Miguel Vargas rounds third base after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, May 16, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Cubs starter Cade Horton delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox Friday, May 16, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago White Sox starter Shane Smith delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs Friday, May 16, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Cubs' Moises Ballesteros watches his fielder's choice RBI during the second inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Friday, May 16, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Cubs' Michael Busch left, slides into home plate safely as Chicago White Sox catcher Matt Thaiss (29) attempts to apply the tag during the second inning of a baseball game Friday, May 16, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)