Black Friday might not have panache of years past, but Minnesotans still show up for tradition

It may not have been the frenzy of the early 2000s, but thousands braved below-zero windchills and long lines before dawn to score Black Friday bargains.

By 5 a.m., there were more than 1,000 people in line at the Mall of America.

A mother and two daughters from Pine City, Minn., were again the first in line for the fifth year in a row, having arrived at 2 p.m. Thursday.

"That's serious dedication," said MOA Chief Marketing Officer Jill Renslow.

Joseph Mizen, 22, braved the cold temps as well, spending the night marching in place to keep warm and being one of the first to score a free mall gift card.

"I like the idea that this is not gambling, in which you lose money," he said. "You have a chance of winning, but you don't lose anything."

While the crowds were not as thick at Target stores, about 150 people stood outside the Edina store before opening Friday to grab exclusive Taylor Swift "Eras Tour" merchandise. The first batch was gone by 8 a.m., and the store was scrambling to restock.

Nationwide, people turned out for the annual day-after Thanksgiving shopping tradition, and their purchases were much needed. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is six days shorter than last year, and both Walmart and Target executives said in earnings calls last week that consumers are much more bargain-conscious this year.

The National Retail Federation has predicted holiday sales will only jump a tepid 2.5% to 3.5%.

To lure shoppers, Target offered vinyl copies of Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" and an exclusive "Eras Tour" book only in stores on Friday. On Saturday, they will be offered online.

Sisters Sonja and Hope Lindquist, visiting family in the Twin Cities from Moorhead, Minn., were in luck at the Edina store. Without a record player at home, they were thrilled to be able to pick up a copy of the CD and "Eras Tour" book that were still in stock.

Their dad snapped a few photos of the girls in front of the Swift display at the store entrance with their prizes in hand. The girls both became big fans after Swift's visit to Minneapolis.

"I love her music and how poetic it is. She's a really good example for young people," Sonja, 13, said.

By early afternoon, the parking lots at both Targets in Apple Valley, as well as Kohl's and Home Depot, looked like a busy Saturday but nothing like Mall of America. Lines to get into the parking ramps spilled onto Hwy. 77, and the overflow lot across Lindau Lane was overflowing.

After visiting stores and malls on Long Island, N.Y., Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at market research firm Circana, said several Target stores there also had a couple of hundred people lining up for Swift merchandise. Elsewhere, the number of shoppers appeared as usual.

"The spreading out of the holidays has created the lack of need and lack of urgency," said Cohen, who had a 20-person team monitoring crowds in Houston, Dallas, the Twin Cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles. "This is going to be a long slow tedious process" of getting shoppers to buy, he said.

He and other analysts have concluded there will be definite winners and losers during the season.

The Mall of America expected a strong Black Friday because it drew larger crowds this fall, Renslow said. With solid crowds through noon, officers anticipated the mall would surpass 200,000 shoppers on Friday.

"There are many retail [stores] leaning into this branding opportunity with 'Wicked,'" including the Lego store, Crocs, Claire's and even Lush, said Renslow, referencing the new feature film version of the hit musical. "It's exciting."

Fabletics, Kendra Scott and Pandora all had long lines Friday morning. Altar'd State, which targets Gen Z and had 60% discounts storewide, also had lines. Macy's shopping bags were seen in shoppers' hands throughout the building.

Sales at the Mall of America are already up 5% from 2023, and Wednesday's traffic alone was up 10% from last year, Renslow said, adding that Friday was proving upbeat as well.

Ahead of doors opening Friday at 7 a.m., Renslow and other mall employees dressed in reindeer ears and other festive gear as they prepared prizes and mystery gift tickets for the chilly crowds gathered outside.

Economists predict that more than 150 million shoppers did some form of shopping on Black Friday. Deloitte said two-thirds of consumers surveyed earlier this month said they'd shop Black Friday, either online or in stores.

While discounts might not be as steep as in some years, retailers across the metro did offer deals.

The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis had "Record Store Day Black Friday" titles — featuring artists including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, the Ramones and Noah Kahan — that were only released in stores like Target's Swift promotion. The first customer was in line by 1 a.m. Friday, followed by 150 others coming up on 9 a.m. when the store opened.

Adam Morell of Eagan held a stack of records for himself, a friend recovering from surgery and another buddy all the way in New York.

"Some people drink scotch. Some people golf. Some people smoke cigars. I like music," Morell said. "This is my self-care."

Abby Vandenbroeke, 17, drove an hour Friday to get to Electric Fetus to buy a vinyl "Hit Me Hard and Soft" with Eilish's vocals.

"I'm so excited," she said. "That's pretty much the only reason why I'm out right now."

Rosedale Center in Roseville touted $5 discounts on photos with Santa, provided that families reserved their slots online. This year's Santa castle is 35 feet tall. The restaurant Baldamar and the new Woodhouse Spa partnered to give away cross promotional gift cards to customers.

But Rosedale senior manager Molly King said she did not expect elbow-jabbing lines with so many deals arriving early this year.

That seemed to be the case nationwide. Richfield-based electronics retail giant Best Buy has unleashed "doorbuster deals" every Friday since Nov. 8 and plans to keep up such weekly promotions until Dec. 20.

"One of the things that we've kind of observed is that there doesn't appear to be any real 'it' tech or toy gift this year," said Beth Perro-Jarvis, who co-founded Minneapolis brand strategy firm Ginger Consulting with Mary Van Note. "There isn't that one thing that everybody talks about, and says, 'I got to get to that store before that thing sells out!' Certainly, there are things that are getting buzzed, but not nearly to the heightened degree that we usually see."

Instead, she said, there's a "deluge of deals ... early and everywhere."

Perro-Jarvis was watching if the Target-Taylor Swift collaboration drew people. She said they also sold out quickly at Target stores in the Chicago area, where she is visiting relatives.

That Swift merchandise "to me is the one thing that seemed really special that you would go out of your way for," Perro-Jarvis said. The other thing that people will surely grab are Friday deals on "Wicked" merchandise.

"We went to see the movie yesterday, and the theater was packed," and people were buying branded items including hot popcorn stuffed into witches' hats, she said.

Perro-Jarvis was not surprised MOA officials said the movie merchandise was drawing attention there.

Locally-based Target and Best Buy, which both missed financial expectations for the fall months, need a strong finish to the year. Yet their chief executives, Brian Cornell and Corie Barry, respectively, are expecting modest bumps based on consumers who are still watching their pocketbooks.

Cumulative inflation, higher interest rates and uncertainty about the economy in the coming year are all contributing toward lower expectations. Several economists expect retailer results to be uneven, and the crowds (or lack thereof) on Black Friday are evidence of that.

"I think this is going to be a better holiday season than people expected, but it's not evenly applied," said Nikki Baird, vice president of strategy at Aptos, a technology company that works with retailers.

For many Twin Cities shoppers, the lure of Black Friday is not necessarily the deals.

Brenden Holliday, 26, and his wife arrived layered up at Mall of America at 1:30 a.m. Friday, and took car breaks throughout the night to keep warm.

"We just do it," he said. "We did it one time, and now it's tradition."

It was the same for Debra Gonzalez, who was at the Edina Target at dawn despite the fact her daughters are grown and don't necessarily need anything.

"I feel compelled, you know? It's Black Friday," she said.

She ultimately snagged the Swift book and Chappell Roan's "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess" before heading to Southdale Center, where Banana Republic had a 40% sale on all purchases.

Includes reporting from the Associated Press and the New York Times.