Black Friday 2021: Here’s what to expect for holiday shopping in the Memphis area
Corinne S Kennedy, Memphis Commercial Appeal
4 min read
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic waxes and wanes, some things remain inevitable and relatively unchanged. One of those is Black Friday shopping.
While the days of fistfights over discounted electronics seem a thing of the past, the holiday shopping blitz continues to soldier on, and consumers, yet again, are expected to spend more money this year than last.
The National Retail Federation is forecasting holiday shopping expenditures to increase to between $843.4 billion and $859 billion, an 8.5-10% increase over 2020 holiday shopping numbers. That includes online and other non-store sales, said NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz in a release.
Those forecasts recognize the impact of inflation but predict “strong growth in income and stockpiled savings should help spending overcome the inflationary environment,” Kleinhenz said.
Black Friday shoppers shop at stores that opened at 6am at Tanger Outlets in Southaven, Miss., on Friday, November 927 2020.
Even during the depths of the pandemic last year, commerce went on. On Black Friday 2020, Jacqueline Jones drove from her Somerville home in Fayette County to Southaven, just as she had many years before, for Black Friday shopping.
“My husband and I come here each year,” she said then. “It’s tradition.”
Memphis-area malls did not respond to requests for comment about what they were expecting to see this Black Friday and what safety measures would be different from last year.
As in recent years, deals this year started well before the day after Thanksgiving with some stores rolling out sales in waves starting as early as Halloween. Big box retailers including Target, Walmart, Best Buy and multiple other stores have had their "Black Friday" deals online for weeks.
The early deals, some of which are available only online, continue to blur the edges of what constitutes the holiday shopping season. It also erases almost any differentiation between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a divide the pandemic nearly eliminated last year as small businesses that had relied on foot traffic dove head-first into e-sales.
Black Friday shoppers shop at stores that opened at 6am at Tanger Outlets in Southaven, Miss., on Friday, November 927 2020.
For those who still like to head to the stores, the shopping experience might feel a bit more like 2019 than 2020. While some local retailers still require masks, many do not and few still request customers socially distance in checkout lines and other areas.
Hand sanitizer stations remain at many malls and shops, and plexiglass dividers still keep customers and workers apart at registers, but those measures seem unlikely to go away anytime soon.
But many Americans will do at least some of their shopping online this year, and online shopping as a percentage of overall holiday shopping continues to climb. The NRF forecast online and non-store sales to increase 11-15% over 2020, to between $218.3 billion and $226.2 billion.
Heather Briar, who lives near Senatobia, Mississippi, said prior to the pandemic, she would usually commute to Memphis for a couple weekends of holiday shopping, including the weekend of Black Friday.
She skipped the commute last year, settling for mostly online orders. This year, she plans to resume shopping at a couple big box stores, "but I was spoiled a little bit by online shopping."
"I still like getting out and going with my friends for Black Friday, but I didn't mind missing out on some of the lines last year. This year, I'm going to do both," Briar said.
Curbside pickup and expanded free shipping options offered by retailers from big box stores to mom-and-pop shops put in place last year to compensate for — or in some cases, encourage — a dip in in-store shopping remain in place for many businesses this year.
While COVID-19 is unlikely this year to directly disrupt holiday shopping, other factors could, namely labor and supply shortages and delivery delays.
Many retailers are encouraging people to shop early — whether in-store or online — to avoid not being able to find the products they want and shipping delays.
NRF said retailers were expected to hire between 500,000 and 665,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, but said many likely started hiring in October, anticipating difficulty filling positions. Amazon alone has indicated it intends to hire 150,000 additional personnel for the season.
If you are planning to do some shopping this holiday weekend, more stores than in previous years will be closed on Thanksgiving this year and will reopen on Friday.
Black Friday shoppers shop at stores that opened at 6am at Tanger Outlets in Southaven, Miss., on Friday, November 927 2020.
Big box retailers that used to be Thanksgiving staples, like Walmart, Target, Kohl's, Sam's Club and many others will now be open only on Friday. Bass Pro Shops, Home Depot, Big Lots and GameStop will all be open for at least part of Thanksgiving Day.
Gone, too, are the days of midnight shopping. Several stores are operating on normal business hours. The earliest any major retailers are opening at is 5 a.m., which includes Academy Sports + Outdoors, Bass Pro Shops, Best Buy, DICK'S Sporting Goods, JCPenney, Kohl's and Old Navy.
Outdoor goods retailer REI remains one of the only retailers to close both on Thanksgiving and the day after.
Commercial Appeal reporter Micaela Watts contributed to this report.
Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development, healthcare and soccer for the Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com
