Black Friday is almost upon us, when retailers kick off the holiday season with offers meant to get customers in the shopping mood.

Shoppers hunting for big deals packed malls on Black Friday as retailers stepped up discounts and other perks to lure customers weighed down by inflation and sticking to tighter budgets.

It is not a stretch to say that the Black Friday game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets is Amazon’s Super Bowl.

Retailers are kicking off the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season on Friday with a bevy of discounts and other enticements.

If you didn’t already guess it from a barrage of sales ads in your inbox, the holiday shopping season is upon us.

Holiday sales rose as American spending remained resilient during the critical shopping season despite surging prices on everything from food to rent, according to one measure.

A ride home from the Galleria Mall on Black Friday ended with thousands of dollars worth of gifts stolen from the back of a family’s S.U.V., according to one of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous.

It’s a rare sight these days: price cuts.

Once the turkey is packed up in leftover containers and the pumpkin pie is all gone, it's time to get in your car and do some shopping, because Black Friday deals are here, and they're better than ever.

While Black Friday will mark a return to familiar holiday shopping patterns, uncertainty still remains.

It’s the busiest online shopping time of the year and we know thieves are working overtime. But you also want to shop around to save money. We will show you how to score discounts while staying safe online.

Give Santa Claus a hand this Holiday season!

From upholstered bed frames to custom sofas and chairs, they have so many options that fit any budget.

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A Houston filmmaker, known for creating diversity talent search for Disney, releases ‘Black is Eternal’ non-profit video project, curriculum for area schools.

U.S. consumer confidence fell to a nine-month low in November, held back by rising worries about inflation and lingering concerns about the coronavirus.

Americans are spending freely and going back to store shopping, knocking out some of the momentum in online sales from last year when Americans were making many of their purchases exclusively via the internet.

Second to Black Friday, Cyber Monday is the busiest online shopping day.

This year’s shopping holiday is a special one for small businesses all over the Houston-area.

Shoppers said there were smaller crowds and shorter lines for Black Friday shopping in Houston.

Climate activists have blockaded Amazon warehouses in three European countries.

Don’t miss these Black Friday Sale handpicked gift deals

With the holiday season officially here, many people are likely looking ahead to Black Friday, and anticipating all the deals and promotions we’ll be seeing next week.

Now that Fall is in full swing, many Houstonians will begin sorting through their extensive grocery list for holiday meals and start some early shopping to find the best deals on gifts.

Walmart revealed its Black Friday deals, kicking off its sale Monday with more than a thousand items already discounted.

Happy Prime Day! Not sure where to start or why you should care? Let us explain.

We are just a few days away from summer’s online Black Friday. Amazon Prime Day started a shopping sale war with Walmart, Target, Kohls and other retailers announcing competing deal days.

U.S. retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in November, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The Commerce Department on Wednesday also revised October’s report, saying that retail sales fell 0.1% that month, instead of rising 0.3% as it previously reported. Economists expect retail sales to fall again this month as virus cases spike and states add more restrictions. “It will take a miracle to keep retail sales positive in December," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at global financial group MUFG. The few bright spots were online sales, which rose 0.2%, supermarket sales, up 1.9%, and sales at home improvement stores, which were up 1.1%.

Hopefully you didn’t blow your whole budget on Black Friday, because there are some seriously good deals online today. Then when you use the promo code POWERUP, you’ll get an extra 15% off. When you use the promo code CYBERMON20m you’ll get $10 off when you spend $50. You can stack those savings on top of whatever deals the retailer is giving today. If you sign up for Rakuten with my promo code and use it to buy anything for $40 or more, we will both get $40.

(AP) – Black Friday online sales hit a new record this year as pandemic-wary Americans filled virtual carts instead of real ones. Consumers spent an estimated $9 billion on U.S. retail websites on Black Friday, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping. Field said stores may be rethinking the cost of paying employees and opening on Thanksgiving when they could easily make up for those sales online. Adobe expects Monday to be the largest online sales day in U.S. history, with estimated spending of $10.8 billion to $12.7 billion. One reason for the big numbers is that people are shopping online for things such as groceries and alcohol that they bought in person before the pandemic, Adobe said.

HOUSTON – Despite COVID-19, many shoppers showed up early to Memorial City Mall for Black Friday deals. It’s almost like a tradition coming to Memorial City Mall every Black Friday,” said Juan Garibay. “We want to avoid lines, avoid people, avoid crowds and stuff like that.”American Girl was a big hit with a line outside the doors when they opened. They had a section outside for shoppers to wait. Families said it wouldn’t be the holidays without Black Friday shopping and this year, with safety in mind.

(AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois has risen above 12,000 deaths from COVID-19, while also surpassing the 700,000 mark for confirmed coronavirus infections. The Health Department said the situation constituted an “alert,” and said that nationwide, infections had risen by over 8% last week. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have asked the FDA to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The state health department reported 5,704 new cases on Friday, putting the state at 3,476 deaths and 295,001 cases since March. ___TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he expects more than half of Canadians to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by next September.

HOUSTON – On Thanksgiving night, the parking lots were mostly empty at big stores across the Houston area. In past years, some places would have already opened their doors to Black Friday shoppers but this is no ordinary year. “I think that a lot of people will be shopping online more than usual,” said Samah Khan. More than a dozen people were lined up outside of a GameStop outside of Richmond around 10 p.m. Thursday. “All online and make it ten times harder to get anything because everyone’s going to be online and everything’s going to sell out very quickly,” Wineland said.

Black Friday shoppers wear face masks as the leave Saks Fifth Avenue flagships store empty handed, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020, in New York. Crowds at stores were dramatically diminished as shoppers shifted online. Black Friday is projected to generate $10 billion in online sales, a 39% bump from the year ago period, according to Adobe. And Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, will remain the biggest online shopping day of the year with $12.7 billion in sales, a 35% jump. At a popular shopping area in St. Petersburg, Florida, several storefronts were empty, and the only line was at a plasma donation center.

HOUSTON – With COVID-19, retailers and customers are pushing more “Black Friday” deals online this year. While GameStop offered an in-store deal that many shoppers said they had to get. GameStop is not the only retailer offering deals on Black Friday. “It’s kind of like on edge like everything is on edge people are on edge,” Perez said. Shopping experts say Black Friday is becoming Cyber November.

Houston – Some hot items this holiday season will go fast. To encourage you not to wait, some retailers will match Black Friday sale prices so you don’t have to worry that you’ll miss a great deal. At Target, for example, if you buy any product labeled a “Black Friday deal” either in-store or online, and then the price drops lower on Dec. 24 or anytime before, you can get a refund of the difference. Our friends at the blog Rather Be Shopping say Dick’s Sporting Goods, Lowe’s, Macy’s, JC Penney and Bass Pro Shops all have the same or similar price matching policies. They all vary somewhat, so make sure you read the fine print from the retailers about their policies.

All rights reserved)HOUSTON – With Black Friday sales underway, Amazon is hoping to curtail crowds with their hard-to-beat deals for Cyber Monday. This year’s Cyber Monday sale will take place Saturday, Nov. 28 through Monday, Nov. 30. Holiday Gift Guides are also available on Amazon to aid customers in finding the perfect gift for their loved ones. Amazon’s line of Kindle devices are also on sale, including the Fire HD 10 Tablet for $79.99. This year, Amazon Prime members can also take advantage Free One-Day delivery with no minimum, and same-day delivery with $35 minimum, Amazon said in a release.

The approach of “Black Friday," originally scheduled for Nov. 27 in France, had brought the dilemma to a head. The director of Amazon France, Frederic Duval, told France Info radio on Friday before the meeting that the e-commerce distributor was ready to sign up to a delay. The delay applies only to Amazon France, he added. “If we can’t open our shops for Christmas it will be very difficult for the sector,” she said. “There are already a lot of flower shops that suffer greatly so, today, we need help and coherence.”

HOUSTON – Thanks to the pandemic, Black Friday no longer refers to the Friday after Thanksgiving. In fact, this year some retailers started rolling out Black Friday deals on Nov. 4. For the first time ever, Target is offering a price match guarantee on all deals purchased between Nov. 1 and 29. If you buy something during that time and the price goes down anytime through Dec. 24, Target will refund the difference. Check out Rather Be Shopping for more retailers deals and sale dates.

The discounter, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, will kick off the deals online Nov. 4, with new deals in stores on Nov. 7. The second event will begin online Nov. 11, followed by a similar sales event in stores Nov. 14. It will wrap up its discounts online Nov. 25 with new discounts in stores Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional Black Friday. This holiday season, many stores are starting their holiday deals in October. Many stores, including Walmart, will not open their doors on Thanksgiving Day this year.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)NEW YORK – Add last-minute holiday shopping to the list of time-honored traditions being upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Black Friday has long been the unofficial start to the U.S. holiday season, though retailers have been pushing holiday shopping earlier for the last decade or so. The first big holiday push will come from Amazon, which is positioning its mid-October Prime Day as a kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Even with the early start to the season, holiday sales are expected to deliver smaller gains than in recent years. Joel Bines, who runs the retail practice at AlixPartners, thinks the earlier shopping will stick even when the pandemic is over.

HOUSTON – If you like good deals and you love Black Friday shopping, now you can get the experience six days a week. A brand new store called Black Friday Deals has people lining up outside the door every morning. What: Black Friday Deals9840 Fondren (on Fondren near S. Braeswood)This store is a brand new concept where you can get doorbusters every day. No matter what the original value was, everything at Black Friday Deals is the same price. Right now, there are Black Friday Deals stores in Memphis, Tennessee, Birmingham, Alabama and Chicago, Illinois.

HOUSTON – The holidays are just around the corner and some may be wondering how that is going to affect major shopping days like Black Friday and Thanksgiving, which over the years has become Black Friday part 1. Malls are usually the busiest, but one property owner has decided to shut the doors of all its malls, including three local properties, for Thanksgiving Day. “In these challenging times, we made the decision that we will not open on Thanksgiving Day, instead allowing our associates to spend the holiday with their loved ones,” said David Simon, chairman, president and CEO of Simon Properties. The Galleria, Houston Premium Outlets and Katy Mills Mall will all be closed for the holiday, but they will be open for Black Friday so people can kick off their holiday shopping. For information on hours for individual locations can be found on the Simon Properties website.

NEW YORK Target is joining Walmart in closing its stores on Thanksgiving Day, ending a decadelong tradition of jump-starting Black Friday door buster sales. Now, the virus has turned the holiday shopping model upside down. Historically, deal hunting and holiday shopping can mean crowded events, and this isnt a year for crowds, Minneapolis-based Target said in a corporate blog posted. Despite competition from Thanksgiving shopping, Black Friday ranks as either the top or No. Like Target, other retailers will also likely start holiday sales even earlier to stretch out crowds.

NEW YORK Target is joining Walmart in closing its stores on Thanksgiving Day, ending a decade-long tradition of jump-starting Black Friday sales. The move, announced Monday, comes as stores are rethinking the Black Friday in-store doorbusters as they try to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which has seen a resurgence in a slew of states. Target opened for the first time on Thanksgiving in 2011, joining other stores in jump-starting Black Friday sales and creating a new tradition of shoppers heading out to the stores after their turkey feast. Go to the Target website to read more.

Black Friday sales might actually begin on Friday this year. Walmart announced it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving Day to offer its employees the day off to spend with their friends and families after stepping up to meet demands amid the coronavirus pandemic. We hope they will enjoy a special Thanksgiving Day at home with their loved ones, President and CEO John Furner said. A spokesperson says this will be the first time in more than 30 years that Walmart stores will be closed for the holiday, Wall Street Journal reports. More information regarding Black Friday store and club hours will be shared at a later date.

HOUSTON George Floyd played football at Yates High School in Houston and was part of their 1992 State Championship run. Years later, his death at the hands of now-ex Minneapolis police officers has created ongoing discussions that athletes are participating in. Here are some of the professional athletes in Houston speaking out. Carlos CorreaOn Monday, the Astros shortstop posted this picture on Instagram, which several of his teammates liked and commented on in support. Martin uploaded posted a black square for BlackOut Tuesday, with the caption being the words of Negro, a poem by Langston Hughes.

But we’re referring to Corona beer and Cinco de Mayo. Typically, the dominant choice of beer for those celebrating Cinco de Mayo is Corona. But Corona likely will be consumed way less than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic, that is unrelated in name. In February, a report in the Denver Post said Corona was taking a public relations hit due to people fearing they would get coronavirus by drinking Corona. Cinco de Mayo has surpassed St. Patrick’s Day and the Super Bowl for beer consumption on one day, with Corona virtually holding a monopoly on advertising and sales for beer on Cinco de Mayo, according to Loop Insights.

HOUSTON – Clothing boutique owner Ebele Iloanaya isn’t just watching her sales on Black Friday, but the day after it as well. We are a small business, we don’t have the resources and we don’t have the capital to grow the business into a big business,” Iloanaya said. Community support on Small Business Saturday is important for Iloanaya’s 10-year business-in-the-making to keep its doors open. But she says she had the itch to bring her growing business back to her home in Sugar Land and right in the heart of the Sugar Land Town Square. Everything thing in Iloanaya’s boutique is designed by her and the majority of the designs are made in the U.S.

“Buy Nothing Day” -- ever heard of it?