Black Friday shoppers line up for Taylor Swift book as inflation drives bargain hunt

NEW YORK/LONDON - From Taylor Swift's new $39.99 Eras Tour book sold only at Target to a $50.99 Jessica Simpson puffer coat at Walmart marked down from $84.99, U.S. and European retailers are offering bargain-hunting shoppers exclusive products and steep discounts on Black Friday.

As retailers opened as early as 5 a.m. after the American Thanksgiving holiday, they are hoping more people seek to close out their shopping lists despite a shorter timeframe.

At 5:30 a.m. outside a Target store in North Bergen, New Jersey, 20 people stood in line for doors to open at 6 am.

At least 18 were waiting to shop Target's exclusive Taylor Swift merchandise. When doors opened, Jonathan Baldera, the store manager, let in five people at a time to a separate line for Swift products.

He said it was the first time since the pandemic he had seen people line up outside this store on Black Friday.

"It's the Taylor Swift craze," he said, adding that the store had about 70 vinyl albums and a higher number of Eras Tour book in its inventory. Shoppers were being limited to 4 Eras Tour books and 4 albums, he said.

London-listed consumer electricals retailer Currys CURY.L, which is offering 171 pounds ($217) off Shark cordless vacuum cleaners, said popular products so far were Sony's 6758.T PlayStation 5, air fryers, retro tech such as Polaroid cameras, beer pumps, pizza ovens and tumble dryers.

"The reason I am here is that I think everything is so overpriced," said Kate Isaienko, 26, while browsing in a Zara ITX.MC store on Oxford Street, one of London's main shopping districts.

Isaienko, who took a day off work to hit the sales, said clothes prices had increased significantly at Zara since she moved to London from Ukraine, and that she was looking to take advantage of discounts.

In the U.S., Walmart, which operates 4,700 U.S. stores, opened its doors at 6 a.m., as did Target TGT.N, which has 1,963 stores.

Some like J.C. Penney opened as early as 5 a.m. to give shoppers a holiday shopping head start.

Best Buy BBY.N, Lowe's LOW.N and Home Depot HD.N also opened their doors at 6 a.m., with Costco COST.O, TJ Maxx, Ikea and Sephora opening between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., according to local store postings.

Walmart WMT.N this year is offering a variety of deals on Samsung TVs, Dyson vacuum cleaners, Lego and Hot Wheels toys, Levi's jeans, and air fryers, although its pre-Black Friday discounts began on Nov. 11.

'Spontaneous purchases'

Adding pressure for retailers is inflation-fatigued shoppers' reluctance to splurge unless they get good deals.

Target cut prices by $100 on products such as a 75-inch Westinghouse TV and Nintendo Switch gaming console, and took more than 50% off Barbie dolls, Keurig coffee machines and KitchenAid mixers, deals which started on Thanksgiving and run through Saturday.

The retailer is selling exclusive "Wicked"-related products, including "Wicked" soundtrack CDs for $39.99, with an offer of buy two, get one free for Target Circle members.

U.S. retail trade group the National Retail Federation expects roughly 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million last year. Shoppers have only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, against a more leisurely 31 days last year.

"With fewer days to shop, consumers are more likely to make spontaneous purchases, contributing to retail growth during the holiday season," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at Circana.

After most U.S. retailers were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, Black Friday marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and is known for crowds lining up at big-box stores for "doorbuster" discounts.

But it has lost its luster as more Americans shop online, a trend that accelerated by the pandemic.

Major brick-and-mortar retail chains plan to showcase interactive products and experiences, including Ray-Ban augmented-reality glasses, extra-extra-large TVs at electronics retailer Best Buy, and spa services at U.S. department store chain Nordstrom Inc JWN.N.

British department store John Lewis was offering reductions of up to 300 pounds on Samsung TVs, 210 pounds off Nespresso coffee machines and up to 50 pounds off Apple merchandise. ($1 = 0.7875 pounds) — Reuters