I visited Target and Best Buy on Black Friday - and I couldn't believe how empty they were
Best Buy was the first store I went to. I arrived about 20 minutes before it opened at 8 a.m.
I was surprised to find the parking lot was mostly empty.
There were a handful of people waiting in line to get in, but not many.
There was a sign at the entrance advertising some of the best deals that were still available.
It was pretty quiet throughout the store.
A lot of aisles were actually empty.
It really felt like any other Friday in the store.
I expected the TV department to be more crowded, but there were just one or two people there.
The only parts of the store that had crowds were the home theater section ...
... and the Apple store. But even those crowds weren't much different than any other day.
I noticed arrows on the floor that started near the Apple store. I tried following them ...
... but they didn't seem to actually lead anywhere.
There wasn't a single person shopping for appliances ...
... headphones, speakers ...
... or smart home devices.
The line at the register was a bit long, but it wasn't anything unusual. There were less than 10 people waiting to check out, and five or six registers were open.
I went to Target next. I got there a little before 9 a.m.
I couldn't believe how empty it was.
There wasn't a person in sight.
There was a balloon that read "line starts here" halfway across the store from the registers.
But there was no one in line.
The grocery department was almost completely empty, too.
And nobody was shopping for beauty products ...
... clothes ...
... or home products.
There were a handful of shoppers waiting to buy new iPhones ...
... and the toy department was a bit busier than the rest of the store.
But there were no lines at the front. In fact, it was less crowded than it normally is.
Even though Best Buy and Target are traditionally very popular Black Friday destinations, the stores we visited were surprisingly empty on Friday morning.
More on Black Friday 2018:
- Thanksgiving is killing Black Friday by replacing it
- Black Friday deals sold out at stores like Walmart and Target before Friday even began — and people are furious
- Macy's, Best Buy, Kohl's, and JCPenney are being slammed for being open on Thanksgiving — and some people are threatening not to shop with them this holiday season
- Walmart says it's offering thousands more deals than last year on Cyber Monday in a direct shot at Amazon's most valuable day
- Walmart shoppers are complaining that stores are running out of iPhones as Black Friday sales begin
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