CIRCLEVILLE – The local Circleville Walmart and local stores reported that Black Friday intense shopping isn’t were it was before the pandemic.
This morning I checked out the local stores to see if there were long lines for the annual black Friday sales at the local Walmart and Gamestop expecting a possible line waiting for hours to grab the best deals. When the doors open it has always been in the past a mad dash to get to the best deals and grab them up. Sometimes resulting in verbal and physical altercations. That seems to have changed. Thats not was occurred this morning, employees reported being at their stations prepared for the chaos that never came.
“It was slow,” said one employee, “heavier than a normal day but nothing crazy, plus we are overstaffed for today so we are working on customer service and stocking.”
Employees reported that they had a line this morning but it wasn’t very long and there was not running for deals or anything they have experienced in years before
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 things changed and more things moved to online shopping, and it seems that’s where it stayed.
In 2021 we did the same thing covering the black Friday sales, and they were very much the same. The same place Circleville Walmart was in utter chaos in 2019.
What Changed? Consumer behavior and retailer strategy.
Retailers now offer Black Friday sales online, even before the day after Thanksgiving, offering delivery, not having to get up early, and avoiding the crowds. Stores are even offering far fewer doorbuster sales and placing those items online for online shopping. Now retailers seem to be more focused on Cyber Monday sale offering up items for a discount that had slow sales the week before.
Whether you like to or not, it seems like this is the new way of the future omnichannel fulfillment.
