I’m in Orlando. Our news reports produced the obligatory “Crowds Throng Malls on Black Friday” articles, but I was there, and they weren’t thronging where I was.
I suspect that articles were written a couple of months ago.
I will be very interested to see if the numbers measure up to the hype. Possibly, the shoppers simply did not feel compelled to shop early this year.
Down here in Boca, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory per "family visit tradition" on their day of departure. The Town Center Mall parking lot was overflowing into the restaurant parking which isn't exactly nearby.
Packed would be an understatement. Did my shopping on-line personally...
Perhaps that may explain it although I'm not sure why. I shop the Internet only while my wife can't find the button to turn the computer on. She is a huge fan of 4:00 AM shopping on Black Friday and was telling me it was mobbed, really mobbed and the lines were unreal at the check out stations. This is in NJ, the shopping mall capital of the world and the most densely populated State in the nation. As I said, when you couple what my wife experienced and what the liberal news media reported, I have to say your experience was the exception. Perhaps warm weather doesn't translate well into Christmas shopping.