As the pace of shopper visits begins to dwindle at malls around the country on Black Friday, the holiday shopping season has officially kicked into high gear.
This season is playing out much differently than those of the past, however. Notably, the activity at many shopping centers was more subdued and deals were harder to come by on Friday, experts say.
"There were no huge long lines, but you did see some folks that were lining up just in the spirit of hoping to get some type of deal," said Adam Pressman, a partner at AlixPartners, who was walking around shops in downtown Chicago earlier in the day.
Overall consumer traffic was slow, Pressman said, and there were few to little doorbusters at major retailers.
Still, that doesn't mean people aren't opening up their wallets. Holiday sales are expected to climb at a record pace this year, with the National Retail Federation predicting an increase of between 8.5% and 10.5%. That would put sales during November and December at $843.4 billion and $859 billion.
On Thanksgiving, shoppers were buying the latest version of the Just Dance video game, Oculus Quest, Rainbow High Dolls, Rainbocorns and classic holiday items like Apple iPads and Nintendo's Switch, Adobe said.