Discounts ahead of Black Friday are allowing people to ditch their tent-pitching plans
BALTIMORE -- For decades, Black Friday has been the symbol of the traditional kick-off to the holiday shopping season.
But in recent years, retailers have rolled out discounts earlier and earlier, which has allowed consumers to ditch pitching a tent outside of stores on Thanksgiving night and waiting in long, snaking lines for hours.
In some cases, deal finder RetailMeNot stated sales started a full week to a month ahead of time. This includes big box store, Walmart.
"We listened to our customers from last year and they really wanted to shop several times. Not just one day," Walmart employee Michelle Mitchell said. "So, that's why we decided to do 'deals for days' across the weeks in November."
Discounts are still expected to draw, in part, an in-person crowd with the National Retail Federation estimating more than 166 million people plan to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.
This is approximately 8 million more shoppers than in 2021, according to the trade association.
"Everybody's trying to save a dollar. I'm trying to save a dollar too," Paulette Jones said. "I'm glad it's spread out like this. That's a good way to do it because we know how much we gotta spend on this one, how much on that one, and we can just budget that to the side 'cause the price is going to be Black Friday is the price it's going to be that week."
Experts said with inflation pushing up prices on everything from rent to gas to groceries, this may leave many people who have less to spend going the extra mile to hunt for a bargain.
According to a survey conducted by the NRF, more than two-thirds of holiday shoppers plan to buy during the Thanksgiving weekend this year.
The top reasons consumers shop on Black Friday is because the deals are too good to pass up, because of the tradition, or because it gives people something to do over the holiday, according to those who took the survey.