MALL crowds were relatively thin on Black Friday in a sign of what has become the new normal in U.S. holiday shopping: the mad rush is happening the night of Thanksgiving and more consumers are picking up deals online.

    Across the United States, shoppers were greeted by protesters at hundreds of stores — some calling for higher wages at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., others protesting the decision of a grand jury not to indict a white police officer in the August shooting of an 18-year-old unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri.

    Most major retailers opened Thursday evening and are extending holiday deals rather than limiting them to one day. The result is a quieter experience on a day that has traditionally kicked off the holiday shopping season, and often drawn chaotic crowds.

    Black Friday has ranked as the busiest U.S. shopping day in terms of sales and traffic since 2005, according to ShopperTrak. But as demand shifts to Thursday and even earlier in the month, the research firm predicts that “Super Saturday” on Dec. 20 will be the most active day this year.

    “It just looks like any other weekend,” said Angela Olivera, a 32-year-old housewife shopping for children’s clothing at the Westfarms Mall near Hartford, Connecticut. “The kind of crowds we usually see are missing and this is one of the biggest malls here. I think people are just not spending a lot.”

    The crowds normally reserved for Black Friday morning appeared Thursday night. For instance, more than 15,000 people lined up for the opening of the flagship store of Macy’s Inc. in New York on Thursday. Retailers also said they were capturing more of the holiday budget online.

    “It’s off to a good start,” said Charlie O’Shea, a retail analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, about the shopping season after visiting nearly two dozen stores in northern New Jersey over the past two days. (SD-Agencies)