The post-Thanksgiving shopping rush appears to have lost its appeal with many New Jersey consumers.

Shoppers Take Advantage Of Black Friday Deals
Joshua Lott, Getty Images
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Reflecting the findings of national consumer surveys, Jersey shoppers say they're more apt to just stay home during Black Friday.

After all, why shop all night or rush away from dinner to stand on line when you can get many of the same deals over the internet? And once major retailers started opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day, some shoppers had to throw in the towel; they're not sacrificing family time to save $40 or even $100.

"I think that time should be spent with families, especially the retail workers. They work hard enough," Freehold resident Yvonne Froehlich told Townsquare Media.

"It's not the same as it used to be because you can buy stuff ahead of time," said Tom Reis of Old Bridge. "There's no need to line up."

As a former mall retail employee, Monroe resident Nicole Genna has seen the Black Friday madness from the other side. She downplays the annual mania as "a hype" and says plenty of stores offer good bargains leading up to Thanksgiving. That's when she does most of her holiday shopping.

"Whenever there's a deal, you try to buy what you can," Genna said. "I hate Black Friday."

Each Thanksgiving night, Dena Levine's four children sleep at her parents' house so that she and her husband can start their late-night shopping spree. But last year, the Freehold couple stayed in. Now, they've agreed they'll only head out if the ads promote a deal they absolutely can't miss in stores.

"If it looks like it's not crowded, we'll go in the store. Otherwise we're going back home," Levine said.

In a consumer survey from JDA Software Group, 47 percent of respondents said they plan to skip Black Friday or Cyber Monday altogether this year. Nearly 75 percent said they prefer to do their holiday shopping outside of the holiday season.

Among shoppers in the survey who took advantage of in-store Black Friday deals in 2015, 34 percent noted they are changing their behavior this year.

According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday has "changed," but "is far from gone," as 99 million consumers said they planned to shop on Black Friday in 2015. But with the internet luring an increasing number of shoppers each year, retailers are offering holiday deals as early as the weeks leading up to Halloween.

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