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Crowds are larger than a year ago at Macy’s stores, as shoppers look for gifts in person again, said CEO Jeff Gennette.

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the retail chief spoke from the department store’s storied location in Herald Square on Friday morning. All of the retailers’ stores opened at 6 a.m. local time.

“The first hour of business was quite strong,” he said. “We’re really encouraged by the traffic we’re seeing and think it’s going to be a great Black Friday.”

Traffic has been strong online, too. He said the retailer saw “a big rush” on Thanksgiving Day, when its stores were closed.

He said the department store took extra measures to get the merchandise it needs, from ordering early to going to less crowded ports. He said inventory levels are up almost 20% versus 2020. And he said shipping cutoff dates will be later this year than last year.

“We’re not going to disappoint customers,” he said. “We’re going to have all the gifts that they expect from Macy’s both online and in stores.”

—Melissa Repko

Talks of global supply chain shortages have been a near constant this holiday season, with many experts urging consumers to plan ahead and place their orders early.

Amazon may be one of the few retailers who ends up being insulated from supply chain shocks.

The company has a major advantage. It operates a mammoth network of its own planes, trucks, ships and last-mile delivery vans. It’s also bringing on 150,000 seasonal workers to help handle packages during the holiday rush.

Amazon last month said it had strengthened its tools to better predict what goods people want and where they need to go, while shipping goods into different ports to avoid blockages.

Amazon is spending big to make sure shoppers have a happy holiday. In its latest earnings report, Amazon said it would take on $4 billion in costs in the current quarter, which threatens to wipe out all of its fourth-quarter profits.

— Annie Palmer

The number of shoppers turning out at Simon Property Group’s Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City, New York, are topping last year’s levels, said Dana Telsey, chief research officer and CEO at Telsey Advisory Group. However, the turnout isn’t as strong as it was in 2019, she said.

Telsey said the number of shoppers has been strong throughout the month of November, even as discounts remain at 50% or below.

“I think the discount rate is less than it had been in the past,” she said. “I think that they’re taking it on goods where they know they’ll make it up in other areas on full-price sales. I think the margins going into this have been solid.”

Telsey said she expects this trend to continue in the months ahead as the supply chain issues won’t be resolved until the second half of next year. Other analysts have said it could take even longer.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Retail was supposed to be in the spotlight this Black Friday, as bigger crowds of shoppers are expected to return to stores. Instead, the stock market is dropping on fears of a new variant of Covid-19 discovered in South Africa.

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said it brings back memories of what the department store has dealt with throughout the global health crisis. He said the company will closely monitor the development.

“We went through alpha. We went through delta,” he said. “We’ve now got new variants. … We’ve been playing with this for the past almost 20 months, and so we’re well-practiced for this.”

He said the retailer has tools it can use to adapt, from shipping online orders to customers’ doors to contactless curbside pickup.

But, he added, “it’s all too familiar for us, what we’re going through right now. And we’re going to be ready for the next wave, whatever that is.”

—Melissa Repko

Peloton is running a flurry of major markdowns this Black Friday, hoping to lure in shoppers who may have been holding out for a good deal on connected fitness equipment.

Its Bike+ is currently discounted by $350, plus free delivery, according to its website. Its original Bike, which recently got a price reduction of about 20%, is marked down by $150. And its Tread treadmill machine is going for $250 less than its typical listing price. Peloton has separately been running a Black Friday sale for a selection of apparel on its website.

The company rarely offers deals on its fitness equipment. When it does, they usually come around the holidays.

This holiday season, however, Peloton finds itself in a much different position than last. Earlier this month, the company slashed its full-year outlook amid softening demand for its cycles and treadmills. Chief Executive John Foley commented that the business has “challenged visibility” in the near term. Competition from other at-home fitness players, such as Tonal, Lululemon-owned Mirror and Hydrow, has also amplified.

“We’ve been witnessing more discounting in the [fitness] space as competition and reopening continues, suggesting to us that this is not where price wars end but where they begin,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel.

—Lauren Thomas

The busiest days of the holiday shopping period, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, typically generate billions of dollars in sales for retailers.

Amazon stands to claim a significant share of Americans’ wallets during the shopping rush, if trends from previous years persist. The e-commerce giant took 19% of total spend during Black Friday weekend last year, up from 11.7% in 2019, according to data from Numerator.

The flurry of sales during the holiday shopping period could also translate to a bump in Amazon’s overall share of the e-commerce market.

A 2020 study by Bain & Co. found Amazon typically gains two to three points of U.S. e-commerce share during the second half of the year, fueled in part by its annual Prime Day sale held in the summer and holiday sales.

Amazon is projected to rake in 40.4% of the nation’s e-commerce sales this year, according to eMarketer.

— Annie Palmer

Black Friday has become synonymous with doorbusters and deep discounts at shopping malls. But there likely won’t be as many bargains for shoppers to pick through this holiday season, according to one analysis.

The average promotional discount for the week ended Nov. 21 was 33.4%, compared with an average discount of roughly 37% just two months prior, according to data from Refinitiv and StyleSage. The year-to-date average was a bit higher, at 38.2%, the duo found in their study on holiday deals.

“This is mainly because of supply worries … that have really constrained inventory levels for the retailers,” said Jharonne Martis, a retail analyst at Refinitiv. “You combine that with very strong demand from consumers and that puts [retailers] in a very unique and strong position to cut back on those aggressive discounts that we’ve seen in previous Black Fridays.”

—Lauren Thomas

Predictions for holiday retail sales are rosy, with the National Retail Federation calling for historic gains of 8.5% to 10.5% from year-ago levels. But the growth is largely being driven by a wealthy fraction of consumers, while a record-high amount of people aren’t partaking in any gifting.

This holiday, 11.5% of people plan to sit out the season by not spending anything on presents, gift cards or other items for entertaining, according to a survey by Deloitte. That marks a record amount of Americans on the sidelines, so long as the consulting firm has been keeping track.

High-income households plan to spend five-times that of lower-income households this holiday season, Deloitte found. The consulting firm polled 4,315 consumers about their holiday shopping plans between Sept. 7 and Sept. 14.

“This tale of two holidays is a pretty good reflection of the tale of two pandemics right,” said Stephen Rogers, executive director of Deloitte’s consumer industry division. “What starts off as a health crisis turns into a financial crisis if you’re in the lower-income [bracket].”

Households that bring in more than $100,000 a year will shell out $2,624 apiece this holiday, up 15% from 2020, Deloitte’s survey found. While households that make less than $50,000 per year plan to spend $536 per household, a 22% decline from year-ago levels.

–Lauren Thomas

Black Friday has become the main event again for shoppers eager to kick off the holiday season by hitting the mall or the store.

For years, retailers tried to nudge up the start of gift hunting. Instead of welcoming crowds on Black Friday morning, companies began opening their doors immediately after some families finished their turkey dinners on Thanksgiving Day.

The pandemic, however, shook up that dynamic — and has put Black Friday back in the spotlight. Many retailers, including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, opted to keep stores closed last Thanksgiving. They repeated that again this year. Target went a step further, announcing this week that its stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day for good.

For the retailers, some of the decision is a practical one: Shoppers have learned they can skip the hassle of lines and crowds, but still check off items on the gift list.

“What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard — one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests’ holiday wishes both within and well beyond store hours,” Target CEO Brian Cornell wrote in a note to employees.

—Melissa Repko

One of the big changes this holiday season? Shoppers want to hit the stores again.

That’s a big change from last year when more consumers opted for curbside pickup or getting packages dropped off at their door because of fears of getting Covid-19.

Half of U.S. consumers said they plan to make more trips to stores to shop for presents this year, according to a survey of 1,005 people from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 by ICSC, a trade organization that represents the shopping mall industry. Last year, 45% said they planned to visit malls.

That’s expected to play out on Black Friday, too. On the shopping holiday, 64% said they expect to head to stores to shop, up from 51% last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The retail trade group worked with Prosper Insights & Analytics to poll 7,837 adults from Nov. 1-10 on their plans and progress.

For some consumers, returning to stores is a way to get gift ideas, feel festive and resume old traditions. For others, the decision is a practical one. In a year of supply chain woes, people may feel more peace of mind from having a desired item in hand — or the ability to browse for a solid substitute.

—Melissa Repko