Was Black Friday a bust for businesses?

What the pandemic means for retail spending this holiday season

A shopper.
(Image credit: TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

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This year, for much of the retail industry "Black Friday was a bust," said Sarah Nassauer and Suzanne Kapner at The Wall Street Journal. The question is whether it's gone for good. Foot traffic to stores for the annual shopping extravaganza fell 52 percent from a year ago. Part of the reason is that online shoppers at Amazon or Best Buy "could get many of the same deals that stores once dangled only to those who lined up overnight." Internet sales this Black Friday hit $9 billion, up 22 percent from a year ago. Many big-box retailers started offering deals in October and have kept the discounts coming for weeks. Even veteran Black Friday shoppers like 56-year-old Dalla Paye don't feel a pressing need to leave home. These days, Paye says, "whenever I need something, I just go to Amazon and buy it."

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