Black Friday holiday shopping in Charlotte looks different this year amid COVID-19
Early-morning Black Friday shoppers in Charlotte were greeted with mist, fog and light traffic. But as the traditional largest shopping day of the year got underway, traffic began to pick up at area shopping centers.
The Black Friday and holiday shopping season look different than years past amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s health and safety to consider. Stores must post signs about and enforce the statewide mask mandate and limit store capacity to 50%, or 12 customers for every 1,000 square feet.
And because of the coronavirus, some stores rolled out holiday shopping sales weeks ago, even before Halloween. Other retailers offered hot-ticket items at deep discounts online in order to keep crowds away from stores.
Several large retailers also decided to remain closed for Thanksgiving Day. Local malls began opening between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday, while retailers like Academy Sports & Outdoors had about 25 people in line for its 5 a.m. opening.
Plenty of parking was available at Carolina Place mall in Pineville at about 10:30 a.m. Short lines of masked shoppers formed outside some stores, such as The Children’s Place that had window signs for 50% off the entire inventory, and popular stores Aerie, Bath & Body Works and Pandora.
But at Charlotte Premium Outlets in Steele Creek it was difficult to find a parking space by 11:30 a.m., and lines of shoppers could be seen outside stores including Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Under Armour.
Megan Lewis of Charlotte said her annual Black Friday shopping tradition took a holiday this year. Instead of heading out at midnight and shopping for about 18 hours, she started later.
“There’s just not the deals to rush out for,” Lewis said.
She visited other stores before heading to Academy Sports after 9 a.m.
“The crowds are not there,” she said. “It’s nice and easy but not nearly as fun.”
Christa Barnes of Pelion, S.C., decked out in a green Christmas T-shirt and dangling shiny red Santa earrings, was in town for Thanksgiving weekend. She stopped at Academy Sports after shopping at several other stores and said she was surprised that there was no Black Friday traffic.
Barnes, too, decided to sleep in this year and started shopping at 7:30 a.m.
“There was nothing I really had to get up for,” she said of shopping for Black Friday deals.
Barnes said she started checking off her Christmas gift list earlier than usual this year because stores started rolling out deep discounts early. About 42% of consumers started their holiday shopping earlier than usual this year, according to the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail group.
Barnes said she also plans to continue taking advantage of online shopping.
She’s not alone. Many households are expected to shop online for holiday purchases, just as they have for much of their everyday spending this year, according to the National Retail Federation. The online spending includes brick-and-mortar store websites that have become major players in the online market.
“Early data from Adobe Analytics forecasts Black Friday online sales to hit between $8.9 billion and $10.6 billion, which represents growth of 20% to 42% year over year,” industry publication Retail Dive reported Friday.
Academy Sports store manager Xavier Wise said this year is unlike any other amid the coronavirus pandemic. Usually on the morning of Black Friday, he said, at least 60 people would be lined up waiting to get in.
But this year, store sales started early online to help maintain social distancing. The store, like many other retailers, also added curbside pickup and same-day home delivery this year.
“We don’t want crowds because people are leery,” Wise said.
He said some of the hottest items have been bicycles, trampolines and grills. Wise said about 300 online orders had been placed for bicycles since Wednesday. Clayton Odum, a district supervisor for Assemblers Inc. working at Academy Sports, said he and technician Chris Thomas assemble about 50 bicycles a day.
“It’s a madhouse in the back filling orders,” Wise said.
The National Retail Federation is forecasting that holiday sales during November and December will increase between 3.6% and 5.2% over 2019, to a total of up to $766.7 billion.
Sam Johnson of Matthews said he and his son Connor, 10, were at Academy Sports to find gifts for his wife and younger son, while also snapping photos of items to add to their own wish lists. Johnson said he has already done a lot of online shopping and expects to spend more money on holiday shopping.
“Because things have been so crazy, you kind of want to make up for all the lost vacations and stuff like that we haven’t really been able to do,” he said.
Hunt for popular games
Among the most-wanted items this year are the newly released games Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation5.
A worker at the J.M Keynes Drive GameStop in the University area reported day-long lines, but not only because of those two games. She said the lines are always like this on Black Friday.
About 10 customers were outside the GameStop store at Stonecrest at Piper Glen in Ballantyne at 6 p.m. Thursday hoping for one of the two games, said store manager Shawn Wolford. A handful of others joined them overnight in the line, he said.
Both games sold out at the store in about 10 minutes, Wolford said.
“That’s what happens when they’re the hottest games of the year,” he said.
Observer reporter Joe Marusak contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Black Friday holiday shopping in Charlotte looks different this year amid COVID-19."