CLEARFIELD – Shoppers heading to stores early on Black Friday were greeted with chilly temperatures and early openings at several area stores.
By 8 a.m., many of Clearfield’s stores still had special sale items in stock, and shoppers were snatching them up on what has become known to many as the official start to the holiday shopping season.
Inside the stores, consumers were hitting heavy favorites such as toys and electronics.
Nationwide, it appears as though shoppers were tempted by special sales.
“Retailers went all out this year with exciting promotions and big sales to bring in shoppers,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Many stores offered substantial savings on big-ticket items for consumers and it seems that, for many shoppers, the deals were simply too good to pass up.”
In addition to shopping in malls and stand-alone retail stores, NRF is also expecting consumers to flood retailers’ Web sites this weekend. According to an NRF survey, nearly half of consumers (47.1 percent) plan to shop online during the holiday season, up from 36 percent three years ago.
“Though retailers know the holiday season is far from over, they are encouraged by the amount of excitement and traffic that their Black Friday promotions have generated,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Although Black Friday is not the biggest day of the year for sales, it is a huge day for traffic, which gives retailers an opportunity to debut merchandise to consumers who will be shopping all holiday season long.”
NRF estimates that holiday sales will rise 5.0 percent this year to $457.4 billion. NRF’s holiday sales forecast is based on an economic model using indicators like housing data, unemployment and previous monthly retail sales reports and includes retail industry sales from November and December.