Retailers bank on Black Friday to energize bargain-hungry holiday shoppers

NEW YORK — It’s show time.

After weeks of pushing early deals, retailers in the United States and some other countries are promising bigger discounts on Black Friday, the sales event that still reigns as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season even if it’s lost some luster.

Department stores, shopping malls and merchants — big and small — see the day after Thanksgiving as a way to energize shoppers and to get them into physical stores at a time when many gift-seekers do the bulk of their browsing and buying online.

Enough traditionalists must still be around, because Black Friday remains the biggest day of the year for retail foot traffic in the U.S., according to retail technology company Sensormatic Solutions.

“Black Friday is still an incredibly important day for retailers,” Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic, said. “It’s important for them to be able to get shoppers into their store to show them that experience of what it’s like to browse and touch and feel items. It also can be a bellwether for retailers on what to expect for the rest of the holiday season.”

In the U.S., analysts envision a solid holiday shopping season, though perhaps not as robust as last year’s, with many shoppers under financial pressure and cautious with their discretionary spending despite the easing of inflation.

Retailers will be even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, hopes to surpass the 12,000 shoppers who arrived last year within the first hour of the giant shopping center’s 7 a.m. opening. This year, the mall is giving the first 200 people in line at the center’s north entrance a $25 gift card.

“People come to get the deals, but more importantly, they come for the excitement, the energy, the traditions surrounding Black Friday,” Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s chief business development and marketing officer, said.

Target is offering an exclusive book devoted to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and a bonus edition of her “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” album that only will be available in stores on Black Friday before customers can buy them online starting Saturday.

Best Buy has introduced an extended-release version of the doorbuster, the limited-time daily discounts that for years were all the rage — and sometimes the spark for actual…