The days of parents stampeding through toy stores on Black Friday, elbowing one another to grab Cabbage Patch Kids, are long gone, thanks to the advent of online shopping and a longer holiday shopping season.

       But Black Friday is far from dead. This year, crowds of shoppers headed to Chicago area malls and stores on Friday morning, kicking off what’s expected to be a record-setting — if more civilized — holiday weekend of shopping.

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       An estimated 182 million people are expected to shop in stores and online this long weekend, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the highest number of estimated shoppers since the National Retail Federation began tracking the data in 2017.

       Black Friday was expected to be the busiest of those shopping days, with many people still eager to go to real-life, brick-and-mortar stores.

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       By 8 a.m. Friday, the massive Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg wasn’t crazy crowded, but it was hopping. Several stores, including Pandora, the Lego Store and Akira, already had lines outside their entrances. By 9 a.m., even some men’s bathrooms had short lines.

       Kate Fromberg, 50, of Byron, said she still does all of her holiday shopping in person. She woke at 4 a.m. Friday and drove an hour and a half to Woodfield to be there with her three daughters when it opened at 6 a.m.

       “We like to touch it. We like to feel it. We like to try it on,” Fromberg said.

       She’s been Black Friday shopping for decades, since she had to push her daughters through the mall in strollers. “It’s tradition,” she said.

       Jeff Priebe, 50, of Northbrook, has also been going Black Friday shopping for decades, with two of his friends. When their kids were young, they were often among the first shoppers on Black Friday morning at Toys R Us. This year, they went to Woodfield.

       For him and his friends, it’s more about hanging out together than finding deals.

       “It kind of sets up the holidays,” Priebe said. “Between that and Blackhawks games, it’s kept us together.”

       Tradition is the main reason about 28% of consumers who shop during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend do so, while about 61% do it because the deals are too good to pass up, according to a survey of more than 8,000 consumers conducted earlier this month and released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

       For some who headed to the mall Friday, it was a new tradition.

       Sovan Misra, 33, took his wife and daughter Black Friday shopping at Woodfield for the first time this year, mainly to see what the experience was like. Misra and his family moved to Arlington Heights from India recently, for his job.

       Misra said the day seemed similar to major shopping days in India, but on a bigger scale. Misra’s 3-year-old daughter, Saanvi, approved. “I love shopping,” she said, as the family took a break on a bench. “My favorite is shopping.”

       John Heger, 64, of Lake in the Hills, said he enjoys watching all the people. He and his wife, Kathi Heger, 61, hit up Kohl’s at 5 a.m. before driving to Woodfield. They planned to shop for a few hours and then stop for breakfast on the way home.

       They bought a wagon for their grandson at the Woodfield’s new Radio Flyer store. Heger said he probably could have gotten a better deal on a wagon online, but it was more fun buying it in person.

       “We do shopping online, but I prefer this,” he said. “With Amazon, you click a button. There’s no interaction.”

       Veronica Hughes, 46, of New Lenox, said she also likes the Black Friday scene. She went to Woodfield on Friday with her daughters who, she said, “got great deals.”

       “I kind of like just being around a lot of people,” Hughes said. “Everything has changed, with remote work where people tend to stay home more, so it’s nice to be able to experience other people.”

       Hughes said she’s been Black Friday shopping for decades, though she said she now does much of her holiday shopping online.

       Many other consumers are also doing a lot of holiday shopping online this year. Consumers spent $5.6 billion online on Thanksgiving Day alone, this year — about 5.5% higher than last year and nearly double what they spent on Thanksgiving in 2017, according to Adobe. As of 5:30 p.m. Central time on Black Friday, consumers had spent $7.3 billion online, an increase of 7.4% over the previous year, according to Adobe.

       With online and in-person shopping combined, consumers are expected to spend between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion this holiday season — a record level and about 3% to 4% higher than last holiday season, the federation has projected.

       But past mishaps with online orders drove at least a few shoppers out to retail centers Friday.

       Susana Maley, 53, of University Village, doesn’t usually hit up brick-and-mortar stores for Black Friday sales, but after a few recent problems with online orders, including one where she never received the package, she decided to head out to Water Tower Place on Friday with her daughter Yesenia, 16.

       They said they use the day to shop mainly for themselves.

       “We’re taking advantage of the deals,” Susana Maley said.

       Other shoppers were planning to take advantage of online deals but still wanted to maintain the tradition of heading out to shop on Black Friday.

       Lisa Jozwiak, 58, of Michigan, took a break outside Water Tower Place with her daughter Hannah, 22, and her niece Ellie, 15, of Rogers Park. A total of 17 people from the Jozwiak family participate in Black Friday festivities downtown, she said. Most of them use the time to shop for the family’s Secret Santa gift exchange.

       Hannah and Ellie had a head start on Black Friday deals, venturing out at 9 a.m. to the Macy’s on State Street before meeting up with other family members after lunch.

       “We all separate into groups in different areas,” Lisa Jozwiak said. A couple of minutes later, another trio in their family joined them, discussing what they’d just bought.

       The family has gone shopping together on Black Friday for several years in a row, they said, and they continue to include Water Tower on their list even though some of their favorite stores are no longer there.

       “It’s just a tradition,” Lisa Joswiak said.

       But some things they know they will purchase online at a later time.

       “Sometimes there’s just better deals on Cyber Monday,” Hannah Jozwiak said.

       Many shoppers now take advantage of deals after Black Friday — and well before. In the past, Thanksgiving and Black Friday were generally considered the start of the holiday shopping season, and now, they’re more like the midpoint, said Katherine Cullen, the National Retail Federation’s vice president of industry and consumer insights.

       In some cases, malls don’t even open early on Black Friday anymore, said Gabriella Santaniello, founder of retail research firm A Line Partners. Santaniello said in-person shopping seemed slower in many areas of the country on Black Friday this year compared with last year.

       “There isn’t this mad rush to get out there the minute the malls open,” Santaniello said.

       Yadira Sosa, 41 of Maywood, said she and her daughters were “late” this year to Black Friday shopping at Woodfield, not arriving until 6:30 a.m. But she said they had luck finding deals once they got there. By 9:30 a.m., they had already made one trip back to their car to drop off full shopping bags.

       Sosa said Black Friday shopping has been a decadeslong tradition in her family. She remembers people pitching tents outside of Best Buy the night before, and lining up outside Walmart for deals on TVs.

       “It’s not like that now,” Sosa said. “It’s not that wild. I like it better now.”

       Originally Published: Nov 24, 2023 at 2:08 pm