NEW JERSEY (PIX11) -- There were lots of crowds, noise, and sales that were just too good for thousands of shoppers to pass up.
We’re talking about good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar Black Friday shopping at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, a hot destination with a stellar reputation.
“We traveled 13 hours from Georgia. Yes – just to shop. This is the spot,” said Georgia resident Alex Garcia.
The Garcia family traveled from the Deep South to do their holiday shopping. According to the National Retail Federation, in-person retail shopping is projected to help draw a record 182 million shoppers over Thanksgiving.
Friday continued to be the main attraction, with an estimated 130 million shoppers pulling out their wallets.
“I still like old school. Touching things and feeling. There’s something to it,” said Roshni and Sreya from Freehold.
Suggestive messaging to “go offline,” huge, store-wide sales and other familiar sales strategies are still being used.
University of New Haven marketing professor Angeli Gianchandani said AI – or artificial intelligence, is also helping retailers behind the scenes….to coax that money out of their customer’s wallets.
“The AI technology is also helping retailers to plan their sales and inventory. The more and more they’re using omni channels, they collect data, so they can track and see what they customer continues to buy,” said Gianchandani.
The mall opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 11 p.m. The staff will work well past midnight cleaning up to do it all again on Saturday.
