Black Friday Traffic Seen Thinning as Stores Open Early

(Bloomberg) Jennifer Doval had an easier time getting to the stores for her Black Friday shopping this year at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

“It’s just quiet -- I don’t know if it’s because it was open yesterday,” Doval, a 42-year-old stay-at-home mother from nearby Edina, said yesterday while shopping for clothes for her 12-year-old daughter and presents for her parents. She arrived at 7 a.m. and was “shocked how empty the parking ramps were.”

Retailers and analysts may learn whether Doval’s experience of thinner crowds yesterday held true nationwide when researcher ShopperTrak announces traffic data this afternoon. What will remain to be seen is how much of that was due to retailers starting their doorbuster deals a day earlier and how much can be attributed to a holiday shopping season that ShopperTrak predicts will be the weakest since 2009.

About 97 million people planned to shop online or in stores on Black Friday, with about 140 million intending to do so Thanksgiving through Sunday, the National Retail Federation said. That’s down from 147 million last year. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-30/black-friday-traffic-seen-thinning-as-stores-open-early.html