Stores start Black Friday but pandemic continues to wreak havoc

Buoyed by good recruitment, good salary benefits and substantial savings, customers are returning to the stores and splurge on all kinds of items. But the spike has resulted in limited selection across the board as suppliers and retailers have been caught flat-footed.

Delivery has been delayed due to shortage of shipping containers and truck drivers while inflation continues to rise. The combination of not getting the right item at the right price — in addition to a labor shortage that makes it more difficult for businesses to respond to customers — can create a less festive mood.

At the Macy’s Herald Square store in Manhattan, shelves were stocked and shoppers were streaming in at 6:30 a.m., half an hour after the doors opened.

Aniva Pawlowski went to Macy’s just before it opened at 6 a.m. with plans to buy shoes and coats. Shopping on Thanksgiving Day has been a family tradition, but she stayed home last year and shopped online. Concerns about shortages prompted the New Yorker to shop in person, and she plans to spend about $1,000 on holiday shopping, as in years past, even as she worries about rising gas and food costs. I am worried.

“Everything is expensive,” she said.

Shoppers are expected to pay an average of 5% to 17% more for toys, clothing, appliances, TVs and other purchases on Black Friday this year compared to last year, according to Aurelian Duthoit, senior sector advisor at Allianz Research. The hike in prices on TVs is because any discounts that will be available will be applicable on items that are already priced higher.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said, “I think it’s going to be a messy holiday season. It’s going to be a little frustrating for retailers, consumers, and workers. We’re going to see long lines. We’re going to have Messier stores.” We are going to see delays as soon as you take orders online.”

Large retailers are preparing for the holiday season, trying to find workarounds for supply chain hold-ups. Some of the largest US retailers are shipping goods to less congested ports, even renting their own vessels.

“We’re deep and we’re ready,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennett told the Associated Press, with inventory levels up 20% from last year. “We’re in good shape.”

While Black Friday has a strong hold on Americans’ imaginations as a crazy shopping day, it has lost its stature over the past decade as stores opened on Thanksgiving and shopping shifted to Amazon and other online retailers. Stores further diminished the importance of the day by advertising Black Friday sales on as many days as possible.

The pandemic prompted many retailers to close stores on Thanksgiving Day and put discounts on their websites in early October. That continues this year, though there are deals in stores as well.

Still, some experts believe that Black Friday will be the busiest shopping day yet again this year.

CEO Gennett said crowds at Macy’s were higher in the first few hours of opening at 6 a.m. than last year, while online sales were strong.

Carol Claridge of Bourne, England, has been coming to New York for Thanksgiving-week shopping for 15 years, but abandoned it last year because of the pandemic. The US reopened to UK travelers in November when it lifted pandemic travel restrictions.

“We had to wait a long time to do this,” said Claridge, viewing a beauty gift set with a friend on the first floor of Macy’s. We’re just picking everything we see. We call it our annual shopping outing. “

U.S. retail sales are expected to grow 10% from last year and 12% from the 2019 holiday season, excluding auto and gas, from Monday through Sunday, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse, which measures overall retail sales across all payment types . Sales on Black Friday are expected to increase 20% compared to a year ago as store traffic returns.

According to Mastercard, online shopping remains huge, and online sales are expected to increase by 7%, after a massive 46% jump from a year ago when many shoppers stayed home. According to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, for the entire holiday season, online sales should rise 10% compared to a year ago, compared to a 33% increase last year.

For the November and December period, the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, predicts that sales will grow between 8.5% and 10.5%. Holiday sales increased nearly 8% in 2020 as shoppers closed in the early stages of the pandemic spent their money on pajamas and household items.

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.