Shoppers disappointed by lack of Black Friday turnout

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Tis the season to shop till you drop. It’s Black Friday.

“It seemed a quite quiet but it’s getting a bit busier now. It seems like there’s more people turning up now,” Olivia Evans, a shopper, said.

Black Friday started off slow for Target in Wilmington, with no one arriving until 6 A.M. A small line of people were there when the doors opened and it was a surprise of some customers who were expecting a more adrenaline-filled experience.

“I don’t really know anything about Black Friday cause it’s my first time going here but I was definitely expecting some elbow pushing but. Like chaos,” Jordan Minar, a shopper, said.

Many stores had Black Friday sales all week and on Thanksgiving. These customers believe it ruins the shopping holiday.

“I was hoping for more people but the reason there’s not is because they started on Thursday and they kind of ruined it like that. It’s supposed to be Black Friday. You’re up at four o’clock in the morning. You wait in line and you go in. You get your stuff and then you wait in line forever to check out. It’s not like that anymore,” Cassandra Richardson, a long time Black Friday shopper, said.

“Stores are opening so early on Thanksgiving. I think people are wasting family time to go out on Thanksgiving and so Black Friday is not as big of a deal as it used to be. Which kind of is sad in a way,” Chelsea Hensley, a shopper, said.

Some hope Black Friday returns to what it was like in the past.

“We used to wait in line all night long in the cold for that store to open at 5am. You were the first one in and you got your stuff and that’s what made it exciting. That’s what made Black Friday Black Friday. I would give anything for that to comeback like that,” Richardson said.

Despite the lack of a crowd, many of the shoppers today were still happy to get everything checked off their Christmas list.