Mall of America logs 500,000 visitors on Black Friday weekend
Mall of America was truly in the black on Black Friday.
From Wednesday, Nov. 27 through Sunday, Dec. 1, more than half-a-million shoppers from across the country arrived in Bloomington, Minn. to kick off their holiday season at the nation’s largest retail complex.
The throng was 5% larger than last year’s, and 10% higher than it was in 2019. A surge of attraction ticket sales on Black Friday helped boost the average dwell times of guests to more than three hours — a lift of 35% over 2023.
Thanks to early sales sponsored by tenants, Wednesday traffic was 10% higher than last year at MOA, and 20% higher than it was five years ago.
The mall’s tenants were especially pleased with the results. In a survey, nearly 50% of them said their MOA locations were their chains’ highest-performing locations in the country on Black Friday.
“We looked at our Placer data and, while the majority of shoppers were from Minnesota and the Midwest, we had visitors from all over the United States and international guests, as well,” said Jill Renslow, MOA’s chief business development and marketing officer.
Despite frigid temperatures in the teens on Black Friday morning, shoppers began queuing up at 2 a.m. to be the first to battle for bargains. More than 13,000 people were lined up to enter the mall when it opened at 7 a.m. and receive Black Friday Mystery Cards for prizes that ranged up to $600 in value.
To continue the shopper surge on Cyber Monday, Mall of America gave 40% off annual passes and 30% off unlimited ride wristbands at Nickelodeon Universe plus buy-one-get-one-free general admission tickets to Crayola Experience.
