MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The pandemic is turning this into a holiday shopping season like no other.
In normal times, Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, drawing millions of shoppers eager to get started on their holiday spending. But these are not normal times. The economy is tanking and crowds are expected to be dramatically diminished as coronavirus cases spike.
At the Best Buy in Cordova, shoppers eager to get a deal gathered overnight to be among the first in line. Many of those waiting were there to buy the latest gaming consoles and were surprised by the lines.
“I thought it would be shorter than this,” said one man searching for the new Play Station. “It’s coronavirus, people don’t want to be around people.”
“I really didn’t expect a line,” said another woman.
“Especially with COVID still beign active, I knew a lot of people weren’t going to be out here. It just shows that even though we are in the pandemic people want to shop,” said another.
They told WREG everyone is being safe by wearing masks and standing six feet apart.
Workers said there was not the typical rush of shoppers when the doors opened at 5 a.m. Thursday.
“We’re going to be cleaning periodically. We actually have cleaning supplies at each station. We’re going to be bringing people in in small groups. Very similar to last year, but a little bit smaller groups so we can make sure we have social distancing and we can keep it clean,” said one employee.
Market research platform Suzy is expecting a third of Americans to visit the stores on Black Friday, CBS News reported, but the biggest boom is going to be online.
“What we’re seeing this season, is due to the pandemic, people are shifting their holiday shopping to online for the first time,” Ryan Fleisch with Adobe Analystics told CBS News.
A number of businesses like Walmart and Target have been offering Black Friday deals for a couple of weeks.
The National Retail Federation is expecting total holiday sales to increase between 3.6 and 5.2 percent.
Americans could spend up to $767 billion on gifts this year.
