Is Black Friday what it used to be?

After record inflation, the decline of shopping malls, the lingering fallout of COVID-19, it might be a fair question. But economic data paints a complicated picture.

According to the National Retail Foundation, this year’s Black Friday weekend was a hit. More than 200 million people – a record – shopped in stores and online from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

That’s a larger number than the 196.7 million who took part last year, and much more than the forecast of 182 million people. Analysts had predicted a slightly more muted turnout during the five-day holiday weekend due to inflation worries.

The number of online shoppers grew to 134.2 million, up from 130.2 last year, while in-store shoppers fell slightly from 122.7 million in 2022 to 121.4 million this year. According to Reuters, Mastercard indicated more shoppers were seeking out deeper and earlier online discounts.

PYMNTS.com reported that 48% of consumers in the United States made Black Friday purchases online. Of those, more than a quarter – 28% – solely shopped online.

What is more, according to Forbes, more shoppers are staying home for bargains.

“When you think about Black Friday, the competitive landscape has really shifted to Black Friday deals prior to Black Friday,” Jeffrey Gennette, chief executive of Macy’s, told investors on a recent call, according to The New York Times.

Walmart, for example, offered extended sales online, which don’t exactly mirror in-store events.

Shoppers spent an average of $321.41 on holiday-related purchases, only about $4 less than last year.

According to CNBC, consumers spent $9.8 billion in U.S. online sales, and e-commerce spending on Cyber Monday in the U.S. totaled $12.4 billion. Both of those totals were increases over the previous year of more than 7 and 9%.

The news wasn’t as rosy for major retailers. An analysis of Bloomberg Second Measure transaction data showed a decrease of 4% for a group of 40 companies that generate a higher percentage of year-to-date sales from the shopping holiday than their peers. For some retailers Bloomberg analyzed, Black Friday spending fell, in some cases by double digits.

Still, the familiar picture of shoppers huddled before dawn in big box stores searching for deals, sometimes fighting for the last item, may be a thing of the past.

“It’s still a cultural event, but it’s not what it was some years ago,” Craig Johnson, founder of the retail consultant Customer Growth Partners told The New York Times. “It’s nothing like it used to be.”