Following Black Friday, some shoppers in Gainesville turned to their tablets, phones and laptops to find digital deals for holiday shopping.
Nationwide, early predictions indicate shoppers are switching over from the traditional post-Thanksgiving shop-a-thon to Cyber Monday, a day of online sales at several retail stores, said UF retail lecturer Steve Kirn.
“Foot traffic (on Black Friday) is about 11 percent fewer this year than last year,” Kirn said, adding that online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday have increased 18 percent since last year.
Even when participating in Black Friday, some locals still relied on technology to help them shop.
“The Macy’s here in Gainesville told us that people would pull up in the parking lot, order what they wanted on their phone, and then go into the store pick-up desk and expect the item to be there,” Kirn said.
Some local Gainesville shops only participate in one of the major shopping days.
“We don’t do any online deals, because we are a local shop and we get mostly foot traffic,” said Jodie Karsonl, a sales associate at Wolfgang, located on University Avenue.
As a clothing shop that relies heavily on students, Wolfgang did not see many customers Friday because many students were away, Karsonl said.
“Mostly because most of our customers are students who are out of town, we weren’t super busy,” she said.
UF nursing freshman Aerial West said she wouldn’t have gone to stores in person even if she were in Gainesville for Black Friday.
“I would rather do it in the comfort of my own room than all of the chaos of Black Friday,” the 18-year-old said.
