Black Friday fever
CAROLYN BOSTICK | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 4 months AGO
A shopper pauses to peer into the shop window of Lucky Monkey on Sherman Avenue.
BILL BULEY/Press File
Carolyn Bostick has worked for the Coeur d’Alene Press since June 2023. She covers Shoshone County and Coeur d'Alene. Carolyn previously worked in Utica, New York at the Observer-Dispatch for almost seven years before briefly working at The Inquirer and Mirror in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Since she moved to the Pacific Northwest from upstate New York in 2021, she's performed with the Spokane Shakespeare Society for three summers. | November 28, 2024 1:06 AM
Black Friday shopping culture has evolved in recent years to encompass more than just the day after Thanksgiving, but for many, the in-store rush remains a mainstay of the shopping season.
About 131.7 million people are expected to shop on Black Friday across the country, with about 65% planning to shop in stores, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics consumer research firm.
The 2024 holiday consumer survey found that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are expected to be the biggest days for shopping for the 183.4 million shopping throughout the holiday weekend.
Locally, Big 5 Sporting Goods has deals running all day Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. where locals can bring home a new air rifle, boots, stainless steel tumbler, basketball and action grip hoop setup or an air mattress.
Lowe's is hosting Black Friday deals Friday through Monday on items including grills, power drills, pull-down kitchen faucets, ladders and washing machines.
Home Depot heralded its Christmas decorations this Black Friday with deals on inflatable Grinch lawn figures, nutcrackers, poinsettias and artificial trees.
Best Buy is hosting price-slashing offers for Theragun massagers, gaming laptops, headphones and new phones.
Early shopping has been trending this year, with about 58% of shoppers beginning their holiday shopping by early November, according to the 2024 holiday shopping survey from the National Retail Federation. By Thanksgiving weekend, holiday shoppers have completed about a quarter of their planned purchases on average.
In Kootenai County, Rathdrum Trading Post encouraged shoppers to participate in this trend, working in an additional shopping experience with its "bigger than Black Friday" deals Nov. 23.
Due to the rise of online shopping and changing shopping habits due to the pandemic, Black Friday sales events in recent years have been less about the early morning doorbuster mayhem of past years and more about deals extending beyond the day itself.
Last year, American shoppers spent a record $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Analytics and reporting from the Associated Press. That means $15.7 million per minute during the day’s peak hour of sales.
ARTICLES BY CAROLYN BOSTICK
'Bad actors' bill fails again
Aimed at protecting home, business owners
After high hopes this legislative session, lobbyist Ken Burgess said that the state bill intended to create protections against unscrupulous contractors won’t be moving on.
Students pitch future professions at reverse job fair
Students pitch future professions at reverse job fair
Ranging from criminology to cosmetology, Post Falls high school students pitched professions that sparked their interest during the reverse job fair on Wednesday at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls.
Kootenai Health, MultiCare celebrate Prairie Medical Campus groundbreaking
Kootenai Health, MultiCare celebrate Prairie Medical Campus groundbreaking
Although hundreds in attendance gathered at the site on Tuesday for the Prairie Medical Campus for a literal groundbreaking, Kootenai Health CEO Jamie Smith pointed out that the project also fulfilled the figurative definition by being new and innovative. “This campus is going to be a gamechanger for the region,” Smith said.