The massive ‘Black Friday’ crowds at large stores and shopping malls, where customers often got on line the night before, were noticeably absent this year due to the pandemic, as millions of shoppers switched to online bargain hunting, a move that will potentially change the face of Black Friday forever.

 

On Friday, Nov. 27, the GameStop on White Plains Road, packed one year ago with customers shuffling in and out of the store, or to Modell’s Sporting Goods next door was a very different sight this year. Modell’s declared bankruptcy and closed its 153 stores on August 29, as reported by Norwood News. Today, the roll down gates of Modell’s are covered with fresh graffiti.

Meanwhile, Dream Closeouts, a furniture store on White Plains Road had a sign over the front door inviting potential customers, to “please come in.”

 

A bustling crowd was spotted on the always-busy East Fordham Road as shops like the Electronic Mall, located at 390 East Fordham Road, had its staff in a frenzy and barely able to keep up with the demand.

The peddlers with tables on the sidewalk along East Fordham Road were just as busy where, these days, the number one selling item seemed to be specialty designed surgical masks, now available with just about every flag or design.

 

By contrast with the generally low bargain-hunter turn-out, the longest lines this year, by far, have been at soup kitchens and food giveaways, or at local medical offices performing COVID-19 testing.

Meanwhile, other crowds witnessed on the same day were outside places of worship. An estimated 100 men were seen observing Friday morning prayers outside the Bronx Muslim Center at Rhinelander and Bronxdale Avenues. The men knelt on blankets laid out on the sidewalk as they prayed.

 

On Nov. 27, “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary talked to CNBC’s, Shepard Smith about the changing face of retail this year. “In March, when we were scrambling for PPP loans, the majority of my businesses were cashflow negative. We shut down retail, which is 50 percent, pretty well every American’s business until we went through this extraordinary transformation,” he said, referring to the move to online shopping.

“We would have never shut down our headquarters,” O’Leary continued. “We would have never have assumed that we would make a pivot, and start selling direct to our customers instead of through retail. That’s exactly what happened.”

 

O’Leary added, “When you sell something direct to a customer, you make almost 100 cents on the dollar, versus fifty cents when you sell through retail, so that’s the reason there’s a massive digital pivot going on.” O’Leary also claimed that 15 percent of his staff no longer want to return to the office, preferring to work from home instead, even after the pandemic is over.

According to Adobe Analytics, Black Friday online sales rose 21.6 percent to hit an all time, online sales record of $9.3 billion this year, beating out sales from last year’s Black Friday which hit $7.4 billion.