Hitting the stores on Black Friday? Here’s what to expect from another year of pandemic-era holiday shopping

Black Friday may not bring hordes of predawn deal hunters to stores the way it used to, but there’s still plenty of shopping expected to happen Thanksgiving weekend.

The National Retail Federation is forecasting record holiday sales of $843.4 billion or more during November and December, up 8.5% compared with last year. But earlier-than-usual deals and concerns about supply chain issues leaving popular items out of stock have pushed consumers to start shopping earlier, and fewer people are expected to shop on Thanksgiving weekend than before the pandemic, the retail trade group said last week.