Shopping season is monthlong as sales holidays blend together

NATICK – Remember the days when hundreds would line up outside a Circuit City, fighting to be the first in line for a discounted TV?

Black Friday doesn’t look like it used to. In fact, the sales holidays – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday – have all begun to blend.

“Black Friday starts a week before Thanksgiving,” retail expert John Eagles of Retail Consulting Group told WBZ. “Cyber Monday starts a week before Thanksgiving. If you go on to Amazon, you’ll see both of those logos hung off of all different products.”

Shoppers have noticed too. “It was Cyber Monday before it was Monday and it was Black Friday before Friday,” noted Boston’s Ashely Rinaldi, who was doing some returns at the Natick Mall on Cyber Monday.

Expert says retailers, consumers have become savvier  

Retail expert John Eagles says the blending of sales holidays is a reflection of how both retailers and consumers have become savvier.

“Retailers are becoming a little bit more savvy in terms of how they’re marketing and promoting their products,” Eagles explained. “You know, they’re not saying, you know, 50% off the entire store. They’re being much more selective in what they’re offering and they’re buying accordingly.”

No indication shopping has slowed

Despite the amalgamation of the various sales holidays, Eagles says there is no indication that shopping has slowed. In the northeast, in-person shopping is down about 1.9%. Nationwide, Adobe Analytics estimates Americans spent $10.8 billion on Black Friday this year.

Eagles estimates that online shopping will offset the slight dip in in-person shopping. In fact, he reflected, there are different reasons people come to malls now – and it’s usually not the sales.

“If you look at a lot of the interviews that were done with consumers on Black Friday, they were talking about Black Friday being the event,” he said. “It’s a shopping experience, but it’s an event to be with people and family and friends and a tradition.”

Kristina Rex

Kristina Rex is a reporter for WBZ-TV News.