It was not clear if the shooting was linked to the sales in any way but shoppers were alarmed at the violence which took place outside a Macy’s department store at the Hamilton Mall in the Mays Landing area at about 1am, according to CBS Philly. Dozens of shell casings were said to be scattered around a bullet-riddled silver SUV in the parking lot of the mall.
A 20-year-old man died at the scene and his 26-year-old brother was treated in a medical centre and was in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his leg, CBS said. Authorities have not given any details about who fired the shots and if there is a suspect at large.
The prosecutor on the case was not immediately available for comment.
“It’s sad,” one shopper said at the scene. “We’ve been doing this, me and my girls, for probably about 10 years now, just for the fun of going out – a girls’ night and trying to get some special sales and it’s getting scary now.”
The shooting was the only reported apparently shopping-related Black Friday violence as shoppers flocked to the malls and department stores in search of discount deals.
Stores such as Macy’s, Walmart and Target were open Thursday evening in what they hope will be a new holiday tradition as they try to fight off competition from online retailers like Amazon.
This year, shoppers are expected to spend $27bn on the Friday after Thanksgiving, according to the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners. That makes Black Friday now the second-biggest US shopping day of the year – behind Super Saturday, which falls the weekend before Christmas.
Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer at Walmart’s US division, said in addition to Black Friday favourites such as televisions, consumers were looking for drones, virtual reality products and hoverboards.
Target and Walmart announced their holiday performance numbers earlier than ever. TVs were a top seller, with 3,200 TVs sold every minute during the first few hours of the stores opening. The merchandiser also sold half a million video games, and reported that it sold five times more wireless headphones than last year and robotic vacuums generated 10 times last year’s sales.
Target CEO Brian Cornell said the stores were seeing a very positive response, the Associated Press reported. “Saw very long lines. It’s very positive from a digital standpoint. It’s one of strongest days ever with an overall lift in sales and traffic gains.
“I look at the consumer and the state of the economy,” Cornell said. “It’s a great time to be a consumer in US. The GDP is expanding, although I’d like to see at 6%; gas prices are low, food prices low and interest rates are low. It’s a great time to be a retailer.”
Walmart said it had sold 150mn pounds of turkey and more than six pies per second throughout November, and that Thanksgiving Day was once again one of the top online shopping days of the year.
But retail analysts reported that Black Friday was off to a slow start. For brick-and-mortar retailers, the challenge is to draw customers into the stores instead of going online. Last year, more people shopped online during the Thanksgiving weekend than ventured out.