Black Friday deals come early as retailers stay competitive this holiday season
ROSEDALE, Minn. – This is expected to be the busiest holiday shopping season since the pandemic, and stores and online websites are trying to spread out those deals a lot longer than one day.
Major retailers like Target, Kohl's and Best Buy started their Black Friday deals on Sunday, Nov. 20. JCPenny started their discounts the day after Halloween.
Rosedale Mall says their traffic has been steadily rising since last week, and almost every store in the mall is offering some sort of discount way before Black Friday – and many shoppers seem to prefer it.
"I like it all month long," said shopper George Hottinger.
"I think it makes it easier to get your shopping done and not stress about it," said shopper Nicole Bauknight.
"I like it because you can make deals all month and you don't have to make it like one day. You can beat all the people and rush and the craziness of Black Friday," said shopper Brianna Oliver.
While many are taking advantage of the stretched-out deals, some like to save their spending for Black Friday.
"I usually like the old, traditional holiday. Just one day and, you know, just go splurge," said shopper Jaques Perra.
Jeffry Jacob, a professor of Economics at Bethel University, says the earlier deals are happening because stores are staying competitive with the demand. If one retailer starts offering deals, the others follow to not lose out.
Jacob also says stores are doing deeper discounts as more people are doing comparison shopping.
You're not too late to get those discounts. The National Retail Federation says they still expect this weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday to be the busiest shopping days with more people expected to shop in person, than online with COVID restrictions over.
The major malls in the Twin Cities are ready for it.
"Mall of America is always a classic. I'm from Roseville, so there's some good stuff here. Roseville's popping up," said Perra.
Most major retailers are closed on Thanksgiving day. The larger malls in the Twin Cities open early on Black Friday this year.