More than a half-million shoppers went to the Mall of America over Black Friday weekend
While the frantic door-opening sprint of Black Fridays past has largely been replaced by online shopping, the Mall of America proved that shoppers are still interested in the brick-and-mortar experience.
More than half a million people hit the Bloomington shopping center from Wednesday, Nov. 27, through Sunday, Dec. 1.
The Mall says the biggest shift this year was that Black Friday weekend shoppers spent more time at the mall than they did last year. Visitors spent, on average, three hours at the MoA on Black Friday, a 35% increase from 2023.
Black Friday at the Mall of America
Mall of America
While recent data is skewed some by the pandemic and the shopping habit changes that followed, the mall had 10% more traffic on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving than it did last year and 20% more than it had in 2019.
On the Saturday after Black Friday, it saw a 10% increase compared to last year and a 33% increase compared to 2019.
For the complete weekend, Wednesday through Sunday, it had a 5% increase compared to last year and a 10% increase compared to 2019.
That weekend-wide foot traffic includes a boatload of shoppers who got in line early on Friday, with 13,000 arriving within the first hour of the mall's opening.
The Mall of America has a positive twist on the holiday, adding that nearly half of the mall's tenants reported that their Bloomington location was their top-performing store on the shopping holiday.
Reuters reports that in-store sales nationwide rose by just under one percent compared to sales figures from 2023.
