black friday

Thanksgiving Night Spared From Black Friday Madness During Pandemic

NBC Universal, Inc.

On a typical Thanksgiving night, youโ€™d see crowds of shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday super deals that, over the years, have started earlier and earlier.

2020 is anything but typical, and itโ€™s confining Black Friday to its proper day of the week.

Crowd control barriers and canopies are already in place outside popular Black Friday destination stores like Target, Walmart and Best Buy, but they wonโ€™t open up until 5 a.m. Friday.

Local malls and outlets will be right behind them. Most are scheduled to open between 6 and 7 a.m.

Once these stores are open, the scene inside surely wonโ€™t resemble Black Fridays of the past due to 25% capacity limits brought on by coronavirus regulations โ€“ purple tier bends for no one, no matter how much holiday shopping you need to knock out.

โ€œYou know, I have been wondering about whether people are going to go out again for Black Friday, said Jelynn Malone, co-founder of Mostra Coffee.

The retail holiday is a big deal for her bottom line and hopes her sales donโ€™t suffer.

"Black Friday weekend is definitely a weekend we bank on. It is, I would say, the busiest weekend of the year. It's something that you know, a small business, or any business is really counting on,โ€ she said.

Malone and Jillian Ziska, owner of To Be Designed and To Be Decorated, said they hope shoppers find a way to patron small businesses this Black Friday to help make up for some of the losses suffered over the last nine months.

โ€œThe hope is that we continue to shop small, because small businesses are really what keep our economy alive,โ€ Ziska said. โ€œSo, hopefully people can get out there, or even shop online and continuing to push that, it would really be awesome.โ€

Pandemic restrictions forced Ziska to pivot from event planning to home design and decorating. She teamed up with Malone to sell home accessories at pop-up shops in her cafes.

Mostra Coffee shops will open their doors to customers Friday at 6 a.m.

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