Best time to shop for Black Friday

Author: Esly Davis Writer: Carolina Guzman
Published: Updated:

Long gone are the days of people camping out overnight, waiting for their favorite store to open after Thanksgiving.

When is the best time to shop? It depends. If you’re looking for electronics, it might be worth waiting, even though some are already discounted.

If you’re looking for toys and Christmas gifts, Santa wouldn’t risk waiting for that 5% off, knowing they might run out, especially if the toy request is specific.

“Hoverboard or really something to make me and my friends happy,” said Jacob Zambrano.

For the Zambrano family, holiday spending is a big event.

“I think last year we spent around $1,200, I would say, but it was a lot,” said Vicky Zambrano, Jacob’s mom.

However, Jacob wasn’t planning on buying his own gifts.

“Santa Hopefully,” said Jacob.

Santa and his helpers might get an early start to Christmas gift shopping this year because red ticket items were everywhere at stores like Walmart and Best Buy on Wednesday.

Those stores have already begun their Black Friday discounts, and they’re not the only ones.

“I need an Apple watch for my grandson. He specifically asked me for that,” said a shopper.

“Oh, probably a couple hundred dollars. I purchased a couple of 32-inch smart TVs for our home here,” said another shopper.

According to the National Retail Federation, a record 183.4 million people are expected to shop between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Professor Piuyush Shah with Florida Gulf Coast University told WINK News that Black Friday itself isn’t what it used to be and the traditional, exclusive one-day sale is “dead.”

“So instead of having a one-day Black Friday, what you see is companies are expanding that period in which people can buy and get the discount, discounted sales,” said Piuyush Shah, FGCU Supply Chain Management.

Amazon’s Black Friday week starts on Thursday.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.