Inflation worries drive bargain hunt among Black Friday shoppers By Reuters

By Siddharth Cavale, Arriana McLymore and P.J. Huffstutter

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA/NORTH BERGEN, N.J./RALEIGH, N.C (Reuters) – Brushing snowflakes off her hair, Teagan Hickson walked into a Walmart (NYSE:) Supercenter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with hopes of picking up a few holiday deals on Black Friday. The first thing the mother of two spotted: A pallet stacked high with Gourmia digital air fryer ovens for $50 each.

Her sister Jordan had been wanting one, she said, but money was tight right now for everyone in her family. She worried about expenses next year, after reading posts on Facebook (NASDAQ:) about price hikes if President-elect Donald Trump’s planned tariffs go into effect in January.

“I’m trying to not spend too much,” said Hickson, 43. “I don’t want to add to my credit cards, but I don’t want to pay more for stuff next year.”

As retailers reopened their U.S. stores after the American Thanksgiving holiday, some locations drew small clusters of early shoppers eager to inspect and compare the stores’ Black Friday discounts with prices for the same merchandise online.

Weighing on the minds of some shoppers: Trump said on Monday that on his first day in office he will impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China. If U.S. prices rise as a result, consumers could feel impact at grocery stores and restaurants, potentially driving up their living costs.

Teagan called her husband Josh, who was sitting in front of his computer at home and ready to compare prices in the store with what they could find online.

“Baby, this looks pretty nice,” she told Josh. “What’s it online?” A few seconds later, Josh found a similar model on Amazon (NASDAQ:) for double the price. Teagan grabbed a box, put it in her cart, and headed deeper into the store.

Walmart, which operates 4,700 U.S. stores, this year is offering a variety of deals on Samsung (KS:) TVs, Dyson vacuum cleaners, Lego and Hot Wheels toys, Levi’s (NYSE:) jeans, and air fryers, although its pre-Black Friday discounts began on Nov. 11.

Cristal Lopez was browsing the aisles of a North Bergen, New Jersey, Walmart Supercenter, which was relatively empty at 7 a.m. Employees were organizing merchandise and getting ready for the day.

Pushing a cart full of clothing and a couple of sling tote bags, Lopez said she was looking for holiday clothes for her two kids. She will spend about $1,000 to $2,000 total – same as last year – buying mostly clothing. “I find the prices pretty much same as last year,” she said, adding that she still had some shopping to do to finish her holiday list.

Shoppers are expected to buy more merchandise using mobile phones and laptops on Black Friday. U.S. shoppers are expected to spend $10.8 billion online, up nearly 10% from a year ago, according to projections from Adobe (NASDAQ:) Analytics, which keeps track of devices that use Adobe’s software to help power more than 1 trillion visits  to  U.S. retail sites.

People looking to upgrade their TVs are expected to find the best deals on Black Friday, with discounts peaking at 24% off listed price, according to Adobe’s analysis of online prices.

‘SPONTANEOUS PURCHASES’

Still, the U.S. retail trade group the National Retail (NYSE:) Federation expects roughly 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million last year. Shoppers have only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, against a more leisurely 31 days last year.

Adding pressure for retailers is inflation-fatigued shoppers’ reluctance to splurge unless they get good deals.

“With fewer days to shop, consumers are more likely to make spontaneous purchases, contributing to retail growth during the holiday season,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at Circana, a research firm.

Evelyn Contre, 49, waited in a 20-person line at a Lululemon (NASDAQ:) store with her two daughters. Contre had already browsed the websites of Abercrombie and Lululemon on Thursday for Black Friday deals before heading into Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday.

Target (NYSE:) cut prices by $100 on products such as a 75-inch Westinghouse TV and Nintendo Switch (NYSE:) gaming console, and took more than 50% off Barbie dolls, Keurig coffee machines and KitchenAid mixers, deals which started on Thanksgiving and run through Saturday. 

The retailer is selling a new Taylor Swift Eras Tour book, and exclusive “Wicked”-related products, including “Wicked” soundtrack CDs for $39.99, with an offer of buy two, get one free for Target Circle members.

“Black Friday is just not what it used to be,” said Hoss Moss, a 58-year-old chef from New Jersey, who stood outside a Target store for the first time in 15 years to buy Swift’s book for his teenage daughter.

“Grocery prices are expensive and … even clothing is not at a price you would get before.” He said his family of four plans to spend $2,000 to $3,000 on gifts this year, mostly at Macy’s (NYSE:) and Lululemon .

In Europe and the UK, shoppers were similarly price-sensitive.

Clothes, in particular, have been “massively” overpriced, said Lauren Harper, a 37-year-old mother of two, visiting a Zara store on Oxford Street, one of London’s main shopping districts. She browsed the sale for a new coat and festive dress for herself, and outfits for her kids.