Thousands of Minnesotans flock to find big deals on Black Friday, big box retail’s national holiday

Minnesotans proved they were, well, Minnesotan, again this year, donning parkas and Christmas bulb headgear to brave temperatures in the teens as they lined up outside Mall of America, some for hours, for some hot deals and great people-watching on Black Friday.

The day has slowed down from the over-the-top days of the 1990s and early 2000s, with the frenzy more merry than harried. Digital sales — allowing consumers to stay at home, with feet propped on ottomans, coffee in hand — take the edge off finding the best deal for the hottest gift item.

But for brick-and-mortar retail businesses, especially in a year rocked by high tariffs and dips in consumer confidence, the day retains immense value and is still usually the most-shopped day of the year.

And in a year of financial uncertainty, many said the bargains were the bigger draw.

Becky Hoffart, 44, of Cottage Grove, stood in line on Friday morning with her 13-year-old son outside Pop Mart at MOA, waiting to buy an anime figure. She lost her job earlier this year, so the sales matter even more this year.

Plus, the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping scrum remains a yearly memorial to her late husband, with whom she’d create a fun shopping game each year to cross off needed holiday presents.

“It’s really just trying to figure out the balance of how to manage Christmas,” Hoffart said. “This is a great way to do it.”

Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with Chicago-based market research firm Circana, said retailers under tariff-duress are sticking to the products they know rather than searching for newness this holiday season.

“They’d rather buy the safe and sure thing,” Cohen said.

This year’s top purchases include TVs, laptops, fitness trackers, Legos, Squishmallows, beauty products, small appliances and hydration bottles.

“And guess what items led last year?” he said, noting that they were the same.

America’s economy remains a complicated picture. The S&P 500 rallied toward a record high on Friday. But the Consumer Confidence Index fell from 95.5 in October to 88.7 in November, the lowest mark since April.

For those who showed up, yuletide bliss — and deals on electronics and apparel — still awaited them. By 10 a.m., Jill Renslow, chief business development officer for MOA, said the mall counted 50,000 people through its doors.

That makes it the best Black Friday in several years, she said.

Deloitte’s annual holiday survey anticipates shoppers nationwide will spend 10% less in 2025 than a year ago. But in the Twin Cities, shoppers are expected to match last year’s sales.

“Fourth quarter is always the biggest time of the year for the retail industry,” Renslow said. “We all need something to bring us joy.”

Across the Twin Cities on Friday, consumers injected needed energy into the retail sector.

But at a Target store in Edina on Friday, families lined up before the store’s opening, according to store director Rich Dean. The store gave out tote bags to the first 100 people.

“They were in really good spirits,” Dean said.

Mother and daughter Karen and Kelsey Chester, 63 and 39, of Mankato, had a cart full of toys as they lingered in front of a wall of pink Barbie dolls. They couldn’t help but notice the shopping holiday’s shift from years past.

The doorbuster deals ”would have never still been a thing at 10 o’clock,” Kelsey said. “And we would be home way before now.”

Crystal Huynh, 29, of Lakeville, who has spent the last decade greeting the holiday season at MOA, also said the event’s energy is more festive than the urgent nature it once had.

In St. Paul, at a retail thoroughfare of small businesses along Selby Avenue, Lauren Olson, 22, eyed a Minnesota-shaped puzzle at Patina, a local chain store, for her family’s annual “Thanksmas” celebration.

“I used to go with my mom and my grandma,” Olson said. “But now they’re like, ‘oh, let’s just sit on the couch.’”

The family instead will make one outing together later in the day.

For independent retailers, store owners expected busier traffic a day later, on Small Business Saturday. But there was light but steady foot traffic on Friday.

Isaac Waddell was looking over ornaments. The 26-year-old from Chicago said rising prices were squeezing his wallet.

Across Twin Cities shopping complexes, crowds filled in parking lots that might sit partly empty for most of the year.

At Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka, anchor tenants such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods opened before the mall. Mall traffic was expected to be strongest at 2 p.m.

“It’s a fun day to be here,” said Joan Suko, the mall’s general manager.

Husband and wife Greta Henderson, 40, and Chad Henderson, 41, of Jordan, Minn., arrived by 9 a.m. with two kids in tow.

They found frilly dresses for 4-year-old daughter Kinsey at Macy’s for $16.99 and nabbed a “buy-three-get-one-free” deal on hand soaps and candles from Bath and Body Works. At Fabletics, they found clothes marked down 60%.

At Rosedale Center in Roseville, hundreds of customers shed billowy coats and hats entering the mall’s halls at 5 a.m., including Kristi Ewing and Amanda Graves, both 30-year-old Blaine residents for a long-celebrated friends day.

“I just like getting up at [the crack of] dawn, being tired, getting coffee and getting some good deals,” Ewing joked. “Spend money, get away from the kids, get away from the husband.”

Many shopping centers looking to get consumers to put down their phones and come in for an in-person experience leaned on entertainment or giveaways. Performer and reality star JoJo Siwa took the stage at MOA’s rotunda. At Rosedale Center, people lined up to spin a massive wheel for freebies, from Auntie Anne’s gift cards to pictures with Santa Claus.

Nikki Trulen, a mother from White Bear Lake, said she does most of her shopping online. But she wanted to take her kids to the mall with their grandmother, Joleen Moen.

“It’s really a kid’s day,” Moen said.