Thanksgiving Canceled? Christmas Shopping Isn’t.
Black Friday won’t be normal and crowds may be sparse, but that doesn’t mean consumers aren’t ready to spend.
Mall Santas and shoppers will practice social distancing this year.
Photographer: David Williams/BloombergLike just about everything else in 2020, Black Friday is not going to be normal. The annual shopping bonanza, usually typified by scenes of long lines and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds hunting for discounts, will be more restrained amid the resurgent pandemic. But sparse crowds this time shouldn’t necessarily be cause for concern for retailers – especially given a late-cresting wave of optimism about how the broader holiday season will shake out.
Typically, retailers want their stores teeming with shoppers over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. This year? Not so much. To allow for social distancing, Walmart Inc., for example, has said its stores will allow 20% of their typical capacity on Black Friday, while Target Corp. will set limits on store by store. Most big chains will remain closed on Thanksgiving, a day that attracted 37.8 million in-store shoppers last year.