Nov 27, 2015 6 min read

Shoppers began feasting on deals on Thanksgiving, but just how hungry they remained Friday hasn’t been determined.

Analysts questioned whether Black Friday is losing its cachet as retailers pushed opening times into Thanksgiving. On Friday, the turnout through the early afternoon was tame at some stores around the country.

Overall, the National Retail Federation expected about 30 million to shop on Thanksgiving, compared with 99.7 million on Black Friday. Overall, the trade group estimated about 135.8 million people will be shopping during the four-day weekend, compared with 133.7 million last year. And it expects sales overall for November and December to rise 3.7 percent to $630.5 billion compared with the same period last year.

But people may not be in the mood to shop much this year. Unemployment settled into a healthy 5 percent rate, but shoppers still grapple with stagnant wages that are not keeping pace with rising daily costs like rent. And years later, they still insist on the deep discounts they got used to retailers offering during the recession.

Sabrina Rajkumar, 36, a writer from New York, started shopping with her stepmom at Macy’s at 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving and was just wrapping up at 5:30 a.m. Friday. She found a $50 bedding set and a dress for her niece marked down to $25 from $74 and Godiva chocolates for $8.

“I’m from New York and I’ve never done Black Friday before,” she said. “We just wanted to experience the madness.”

She said she didn’t believe she’d like it because she usually buys personalized gifts at places like Etsy, but she had fun. A highlight was free samples of espresso from machines on sale.

“It was crazy, not as crazy as I expected, but there were still a lot of folks there up to the wee hours,” she said.

Colorado has a new Black Friday tradition: Marijuana shops drawing shoppers with discounted weed and holiday gift sets.

At Denver Kush Club, about two dozen customers were lined up in subfreezing temperatures and snow showers to take advantage of the deals.

The first few customers got free joints, free rolling papers and a T-shirt with purchase. Medical customers were offered ounces of marijuana for $99 – a savings of about 50 percent.

The shop blasted reggae music and welcomed the crowd with Green Friday welcome cheers. Similar deals were offered last year, the first in which retail recreational marijuana sales opened.

“We get a lot of people in the first few hours, just like any store on Black Friday,” said co-owner Joaquin Ortega. He added marijuana gift-giving is becoming more common, though most were shopping for themselves Friday.

A protest began in Chicago’s shopping district, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the middle of a crowd shouting: “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”

The march came after the release of a video earlier in the week showing the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by police officer Jason Van Dyke. The video set off days of largely peaceful protests.

On Black Friday, demonstrators took to the city’s main shopping area to keep the issue front and center. Several hundred gathered in the drizzling rain, many with plastic-wrapped signs.

One demonstrator, Frank Chapman, 73, said the video confirms what activists have said for years about Chicago police brutality.

Visitors to Neiman Marcus’ website Friday got a message saying, “We’ll be back soon. We’re currently making improvements to your shopping experience.”

A representative for Neiman Marcus, Ginger Reeder, said the company is “working fervently to determine the problem and get the site back up.”

Business was brisk, but not overwhelming, at a Macy’s in Kansas City, Mo., as rain that started Thursday morning continued falling. There didn’t appear to be any lines more than a few customers deep.

Gerri Spencer and her daughter left home at 4 a.m. Friday and were at Cabela’s in Kansas City, Kan., an hour later.

“There was a very long line, a few tents and a lot of lawn chairs,” Spencer said.

The pair made their way five hours later to a Macy’s store. Thanks to so many stores opening on Thanksgiving night, Spencer said the crowds seemed sparser than in the past, when Black Friday meant “getting out at the crack of dawn” to get the best deals.

Teenagers dominated the Black Friday crowd at the mall in Pleasanton, Calif.

Sarah Fehrnstrom, 13, said she spent $130 on sweat shirts, pants, makeup and perfume in a couple of hours. Her budget was $300 for the day of marathon shopping.

“It’s hard to get money as a teenager,” Fehrnstrom said. “When there’s sales, we come out.”

Some Black Friday shoppers seemed to miss the holiday crowds.

At a Kmart in Denver, Susan Montoya had nearly the entire store to herself. She half-heartedly flipped through a rack of girls’ holiday party dresses and looked down the store’s empty aisles.

“There’s no one out here! No challenge!” she said.

“I’m not even looking for anything. I just come out to see what the deals are and to see everybody getting ready for Christmas. But this is sad. Everyone’s online or went shopping yesterday.”

Ashley Walton said her $200 budget on Black Friday was the same as last year, but it didn’t buy as much because the best sales were the night before.

“It’s Black Thursday now,” Walton said.

She didn’t go shopping on Thanksgiving because she was in a “turkey coma.” When she ventured out Friday, she was disappointed. She said Walmart didn’t have all the items she wanted, such as a tablet for her 4-year-old son.

So she went on Amazon and ordered it on her smartphone.

Lynette Norcup is nostalgic for Black Fridays of the past.

Sitting in the warmth of her daughter’s SUV waiting for Walmrt to open, the resident of Pleasanton, Calif., said she believes the excitement has fizzled with stores opening on Thanksgiving.

Norcup misses the challenge of strategizing to score deals.

Target CEO Brian Cornell told reporters on a conference call that early results show the discount chain is seeing higher traffic at its stores than last year. And he said shoppers are buying items across the store, from clothing to electronics to toys.

Cornell also said he has been pleased with strong results in online sales.

At the crowded Macy’s shoe department in New York City’s Herald Square, Karina Maxim, an artist and tarot card reader, was taking a break from shopping. This was her first time shopping on Thanksgiving.

She plans to go to Best Buy Friday. “I’m not going to promise I will buy anything,” she said.

Rosy Urrutia shopped on Thanksgiving night as an appetizer before her meal. The Commerce City, Colo., stay-at-home mom had an armful of shoe boxes – two for herself and three for her children – and an electric griddle.

“I have one hour to shop and then I have to get home and cook Thanksgiving dinner,” she said. “I just wanted to come shop for some me time, I guess. I love it. But I like cooking for everyone, too.”