Shoppers braved cool temperatures and spotty rain showers to snag door-busting deals Friday morning at retail stores around Jefferson City.
Throughout the morning, shoppers said they liked the familial aspect of shopping with friends and family on Black Friday, America's unofficial shopping holiday that kicks off the Christmas shopping season. Others said they wanted deals on electronics.
Even as digital sales eat away at brick-and-mortar sales, the National Retail Federation expects holiday shopping sales to increase as much as 4.8 percent to $720.89 billion this year.
Denise Percival and her teenage daughter Sydney Percival walked out of Target at 735 W. Stadium Blvd. around 9:30 a.m. Friday. Rita Percival, Denise's mother-in-law, said sales drove them out to Target on Friday morning. Denise and Rita said they always go shopping on Black Friday and wish the sales were not as spread out as they are now.
"Move everything to Friday," both said.
The Percivals had nothing in particular in mind when they went into Target. The trio got out to stores at 6:15 a.m. and went to Kohl's, Shoe Carnival and Orscheln Farm & Home before they hit Target. After Target, they planned to go to Menards.
At Target, they purchased the card game Cards Against Humanity, which essentially is an adult version of the Apples to Apples game, and a few shirts. Denise said they got the game to play at holiday gatherings.
"You cross a lot of stuff off the list in one fair swoop," she said of Black Friday shopping.
Like the Percivals, members of Alek Maxwell's family said they liked the social aspect of shopping as they exited Best Buy around 10:15 a.m. Friday. Maxwell and his family were in town from St. Louis to see their aunt who lives in Jefferson City and was out shopping with them.
A deal on a $125 Fitbit Charge 3 drove Maxwell to Best Buy on Friday morning, which saved him $30.
Unlike Maxwell, Penny Jarden walked out of Best Buy empty handed. Jarden, of Jefferson City, wanted a keyboard, but struck out.
"I found the keyboard I wanted," Jarden said. "They were not in stock, so I'm going on the internet to get it."
Jarden and her friend Freda Herold go shopping together every Black Friday. This year, they got out to the stores at 5 a.m.
"We're usually the (4 a.m.) guys," Jarden said with a laugh.
"Not this year," Herold added as she smiled.
Before going to Best Buy, the pair hit Menards, but left without buying anything because they said the line stretched to the back of the store. Last year, the friends also went shopping on Thanksgiving Day.
About 55 percent of consumers will shop online this holiday season, according to the NRF. With the way Black Friday sales are stretched across several days now and available easily online, Herold and Jarden said they also shop online for Black Friday deals.
"This year, they had so many sales (online) that were early and they were good, and it was easier," Herold said.
E-commerce sales made up 9.8 percent of all retail sales in the third quarter of 2018, up from 9 percent in the third quarter of 2017, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Joel Bines, a managing director with consulting firm AlixPartners, told the Wall Street Journal this week that in recent years, retailers feared digital sales would kill sales at brick-and-mortar stores.
Now, Bines told the Wall Street Journal retailers face battles on two fronts as they acknowledge some customers like to feel merchandise and enjoy the social aspects of shopping, but other customers want to buy merchandise online.
Target invested $1 billion in store renovations this year, according to Supermarket News, a grocery and retail trade publication. Other retailers like Macy's are following suit in investing in their brick and mortar stores after spending heavily to build new or existing stores, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In recent years though, retail sales have been stagnant. Through the first three quarters of 2018, retail sales increased just 0.3 percent, according to the St. Louis Fed. Last year, retail profits after taxes declined by 2.2 percent.
With the holiday shopping season now under way, all consumers and stores can do is wait as the shopping season unfolds. During most of the morning Friday, retailers along Missouri Boulevard like Target, Dicks Sporting Goods and Walmart saw heavy traffic fill their parking lots.
As Jarden and Herold prepared to head to JCPenney or Kohl's, Jarden looked at the full parking lot at Best Buy and said all the traffic was an encouraging sign with Jefferson City's unemployment rate low and the country's economy growing.