MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Shoppers on the hunt for bargains swarmed malls and large retailers across South Florida on Black Friday.
7News cameras on Friday captured two women grabbing a large flat-screen that barely fit their shopping cart outside BrandsMart USA in Miami Gardens.
“On Cyber Monday, I would have had to wait a while to get it, so I like coming in person, seeing it for myself and buying it,” said Katherine Lopez, one of the shoppers.
Retailers anticipated big crowds this year.
Shopper Manny Gonzalez listed the items he was seeking.
“Some videos, a nice TV for him, some earphones and a couple of more things,” he said.
Experts believe there may be a noticeable difference in people’s spending habits this holiday season, as people hunt down bargains.
“This is a really interesting time for the economy, because we do have on one hand really, really fast inflation that is eroding consumer confidence, making things more difficult. [Things] became much more difficult for people on limited income to afford presents, necessities, everything that they want to buy in their everyday lives,” said Jeanna Smialek, federal reserve and economics reporter for The New York Times, “but on the other hand, it does seem like people are getting out, willing to shop. Spending intentions were still really quoting up going into the holiday season, and it seems like people are willing to put things on credit cards when they aren’t able to make ends meet.”
Businesses like BrandsMart in Miami Gardens saw lines of cars to park. At Dolphin Mall, cameras showed customers standing in line as they waited to enter a store.
In some cases, it may have been a bit surprising to pull up and find a parking spot at the mall, even if it was way in the back.
It may not have been shoppers visiting the stores that drove up sales already. Experts said people across the U.S. spent a whopping $5.29 billion online on Thanksgiving, and they attribute that spending to huge demand, not inflation.
“The sales are good. Yeah, they were,” said shopper Lori Morton.
Morton said she and her friend have not missed a chance to shop on Black Friday over the last 16 years.
“We’ve been doing this for so long, we kind of see the trajectory of the shopping, and so, it feels like old-school Black Friday shopping this year,” she said. “Last year was a bit lighter, earlier this morning was lighter, but it kind of thickened up and got more crowded later on today, so it feels like a more traditional Black Friday shopping this year.”
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