Black Friday comes early due to supply disruptions

Black Friday.....it's an American shopping tradition that's been duplicated all over the world.

But this year, the post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping bonanza is likely to be much different in the U.S. than recent years, and it's not just because of the health crisis, says Jeremey King, he's CEO and Founder of Attest, a retail software tracking company.

"Supply chain disruptions are a big problem. So, consumers are worried that the items that they want to get won't be available at Christmas time in the holidays in December, either because of stock outs driven by supply chains (issues) in Europe and North America, or simply because everything's going to get sold out in Black Friday because it last so long now. But 42 percent of consumers say that they've begun their Christmas shopping early in Black Friday, in Black November because they're concerned about supply chains."

And retailers started stocking up what they could and offered holiday discounts earlier than normal.

Many major U.S. retailers: Walmart, Target, Macy's - all cited an early start to the holiday shopping season for solid third-quarters sales figures.

So what's left for bargain hunters who typically wait for Black Friday to stock up on gifts?

Shoppers in New York City were out early, hunting for sales and they weren't impressed.

(SOT - KENNY WHITE, FROM CALIFORNIA)

"Not really finding any good deals.

(SOT - CRYSTAL, FROM NEW YORK)

"I haven't really seen too many deals, but we're going to keep walking around to see if we find deals."

But that's not likely to dampen the entire holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation is predicting 2 million more people will shop Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year compared to last year...and spending for the entire holiday season is projected to rise to a new record.