Terry Roberson was at Hamilton Place mall on Tuesday ready to shop to avoid a likely-more-crowded Black Friday group of buyers searching for holiday gifts.
At the same time, the Dunlap, Tennessee, woman said she doesn’t fear the coronavirus, adding that, “I know it’s serious. But I won’t be living my life afraid of it. God has a plan.”
Some shoppers and merchants expect Black Friday 2020 to be unlike the key shopping date of past years that traditionally kicks off the Christmas buying season. Many Black Friday sales already have been running for weeks, online spending continues to surge and coronavirus cases are up.
Mustafa Zafev, who was manning the R Game gaming system sales kiosk inside Hamilton Place, said he’s not expecting a crush of people on Black Friday. Already, he said, mall traffic is “a little slow.”
“It was better last year,” Zafev said.