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Malls Mostly Empty on Black Friday as Coronavirus Rages

Though online shopping has surged alongside the pandemic, early sales figures came in $1 billion lower than expected.

Brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S., especially in malls, were largely empty on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, with consumers largely taking their shopping online amid the surging coronavirus pandemic. The country passed 13 million confirmed cases Friday, making November the worst month of the pandemic so far. Many stores had debuted markdowns online far earlier than the traditional post-Thanksgiving deal day due to a huge spike in online shopping brought on by increased spending at home, but early sales figures came in $1 billion lower than expected, Bloomberg reported. Buyers who did venture into stores often made their decisions on where to buy not by deals but by coronavirus safety precautions like mask mandates. Terrified retail workers told The Daily Beast in the days leading up to Black Friday that they expected massive, unmasked crowds.