Black Friday deals see shoppers flocking to malls

With Covid-19 restrictions gradually winding down, shoppers hit the streets as they returned to the nation's favourite pastime on Black Friday yesterday.

The SafeEntry gantries at malls beeped busily as throngs of shoppers, drawn by steep discounts, checked into bargain-hunting grounds.

Among them were consumers who wanted to get a feel of the actual goods before buying, and older shoppers who never quite took to online shopping during the pandemic.

On the hunt for new kitchen equipment in the basement of Takashimaya was Madam Linda Chng, 52. She said: "Although my children tend to do more online shopping, I still prefer to go to bricks-and-mortar department stores because I like to be able to look at and feel things."

Madam Chng, who is self-employed, added: "The Black Friday sale just gave me an opportunity to do so at lower prices."

Housewife Lim Soo Shan, 40, said she prefers to shop online, but was accompanying her 65-year-old mother to the luxury bag section of Takashimaya to shop for a bag.

"For the older generation, it's important for them to touch the product before they get it," she said.

Mr Erwin Wuysang-Oei, head of marketing and e-commerce at Metro, said the home-grown department store has seen "encouraging" sales figures from its stores and online.

While shoppers yearn for some sense of normalcy by shopping in-store during the festive period, "customers feel they can get the same Black Friday deals online as in physical stores, and the items are available to them 24/7, so there's no rush", said Mr Wuysang-Oei, who is also the department store's merchandising controller.

Queueing outside Bath & Body Works, student Wong Pui Mun, 17, said: "Just seeing all the shops put up signboards saying 'buy three get three free' makes the experience so much more thrilling than shopping online."

Her friend Alexis Lai, 17, also a student, said: "All these physical sales have also provided us a great excuse to spend time together, especially since we haven't been able to gather in a group larger than two in a while."

Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed as of Monday, allowing groups of up to five to gather.

The Black Friday sale, which in recent years here has come to be the flag-off for the Christmas sales, has brought much-needed foot traffic to retailers.

Retail staff at five stores in Orchard Road told The Straits Times that the crowd was at least 50 per cent larger than last Friday's.

Mr Matthew Hoang, Courts Singapore's chief executive, said that its flagship store in Orchard Road has benefited from the increased footfall. "We expect that our Black Friday sales this year will outperform last year's," he said.

Ms Cher Yeo, marketing manager of Gain City, which has 10 stores islandwide, said: "We have seen an increase of 10 per cent for Black Friday pre-sales in our physical stores this year compared with last year."

The local appliance retailer's pre-sale started last weekend.

Northpoint City, a mall in Yishun, also enjoyed a surge in shoppers, with a jewellery retailer attributing the crowds to the Black Friday sales and approaching holiday season.

A shopper at the Royal Sporting House store, a 34-year-old nurse who gave her name only as Jan, told ST: "The Black Friday sale is a chance for me to come out to shop and spend some time outside."

Smiling as she lifted up all her bags, she said: "I bought quite a lot of things."