It was a most unusual Black Friday weekend for American malls

Al Urbanski
Simon's Woodbury Common outlet center north of New York City saw it's traffic more than double on the Sunday following Black Friday.

Socially distant shopping presented American malls with traffic patterns they hadn’t seen before and most likely won’t see again, according to Placer.ai’s tracking of nine of the nation’s most visible centers.

“No one was spared,” said Ethan Chernofsky, Placer.ai’s marketing chief.

King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia, Woodfield Mall in Chicagoland, Destiny USA in Syracuse, and Houston Premium Outlets all suffered Black Friday traffic declines of more than 50%. Every one of the other malls tracked experienced declines of more than 40% except for Sunrise Mills in Fort Lauderdale, which saw a 39% decline.

Following the trend that has been in play throughout the United States on the unofficial opening weekend of the holiday shopping season, shoppers picked up their activity levels on Saturday and Sunday. 

Perhaps the nation’s most successful outlet center, Simon’s Woodbury Common in Orange County, N.Y., enjoyed a 133% increase in traffic on Sunday. On the same day, Destiny USA and Chicago Premium Outlets also hosted more guests than they did on the same day in 2019. All nine centers posted traffic declines on Saturday, but at much lower levels than Black Friday, which socially distant consumers backed off from. 

“Shoppers likely remained at home to avoid the enormous crowds Black Friday draws and headed back to the shops on the following days. This could provide a critical insight into how holiday season shopping patterns will shift in the future,” Chernofsky said. 

From May to November, outdoor centers have out-drawn indoor centers with average traffic declines of 35% compared to malls’ average drop of 53%. The same held true on Black Friday, but not with as great a divide. Outdoor center traffic dove 48% on Nov. 27 compared to 53% at indoor centers. 

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds