Before it even began, Americans spent $1.15 billion online between midnight and 5:00AM on Thursday.
America goes shopping: The chaos of Black Friday 2016 is here.
Black Friday is here, and the holiday shoppers are already out in force.
The annual retail mega-event began in many stores Thanksgiving evening and will continue well into Friday, with sales and deals throughout the weekend.
Several stores this year hyped additional savings online, some of which have been available since early this month.
Amazon launched a Black Friday Deals Store on Nov. 8. Stores like JCPenney and Kohl's began promoting Black Friday sales prices online this week.
A report from Adobe says Americans have already spent $25.5 billion online this month, a 3.5% increase from last year.
The top-selling items, Adobe says, include a slew of electronics and toys, like Samsung 4K TVs, iPads, electric scooters and Lego sets.
While many stores opened on Thanksgiving this year, others held off on an early start. Mall of America is suspending operations on the holiday, though individual stores in the mall can choose to stay open.
