The Kiefer police officer went to the Starbucks in Glenpool on Thanksgiving day to pick up five drinks, CNN affiliate KTUL reported. Kiefer Chief Johnny O'Mara told the news station a customer pointed out the label on the cups to the officer.
"What irks me is the absolute and total disrespect for a police officer who, instead of being home with family and enjoying a meal and a football game, is patrolling his little town," O'Mara wrote in a Facebook post, where he shared a picture of a cup with the "PIG" label on it.
The coffee company called the incident "absolutely unacceptable" and said it is "deeply sorry to the law enforcement officer who experienced this."
"The Starbucks partner who wrote this offensive word on a cup used poor judgement and is no longer a partner after this violation of company policy," the statement read. "This language is offensive to all law enforcement and is not representative of the deep appreciation we have for police officers who work tirelessly to keep our communities safe."
In a joint statement, Starbucks and Kiefer police said they're using the incident "as an opportunity to leverage our shared platforms to promote greater civility."
The company will meet with Kiefer police to discuss ways to work together, including by jointly hosting a Coffee with a Cop event at Starbucks for local law enforcement to meet with baristas and community members to discuss "the critical role dispatchers and police offers play in keeping our communities safe," the joint statement said.
Black Friday shoppers sort through denim at Bass Pro Shops at Patriot Place in Foxboro, Mass.
Photo:
MARK STOCKWELL/Associated Press
The strength of the American consumer as a driving force behind the economy was on display during the annual Black Friday ritual, as shoppers headed to malls and visited websites looking for deals.
Did you visit your neighborhood mall on Black Friday? Why or why not? Join the conversation below.
Online sales on Thanksgiving Day were up 20% from a year ago and reached $2.1 billion as of 5 p.m. ET, according to
Adobe
Analytics, which tracks activity on thousands of websites. About 46% of those purchases were made on mobile devices, up from 34% a year ago, Adobe said.
Natalie Mendo, a 24-year-old student in Queens, N.Y., went shopping on Thanksgiving to see how the prices in her local mall stacked up against what she has seen online. “I’ll see if there’s anything really great,” she said at a crowded New York City mall. “If not, I’ll go home and do some Cyber Monday shopping.”
At Rolling Oaks Mall near San Antonio, a light stream of shoppers began appearing late Thursday night. A relaxed atmosphere gave way to mostly unhurried customers, though department stores such as Macy’s were more bustling than others.
Customers have frequented the indoor mall less as outdoor shopping centers with elegant restaurants have popped up nearby. On Thursday, some stores were visibly without a tenant, sitting empty and dark. While
J.C. Penney Co.
opened its doors as early as 2 p.m., other stores, such as Dillard’s and H&M, weren’t open as Black Friday festivities began.
“The mad rush isn’t here anymore,” said Reila Prose, a 40-year-old San Antonio-area resident who goes out each year during Black Friday. “The mall has dwindled. You can get everything online.”
The American consumer “is willing to spend when offered compelling products and the value is right,”
Richard Hayne,
Urban Outfitter’s chief executive, said on a conference call earlier this month. “We expect her to spend more this holiday than in years past.”
On Black Friday in 2018, more than 80% of online shopping carts were abandoned, according to research firm Barilliance. But retailers are hoping new pay buttons will help, and investors are paying close attention.
Comparison shopping and spending are moving online, especially during the holidays, but the majority of retail purchases are still made in stores. Retailers have responded by pushing deals earlier in the season. Most stores open their doors on Thanksgiving Day, pulling sales from Black Friday itself. And retailers roll out new online promotions the following Cyber Monday.
Before its 8 a.m. opening on Friday, about two dozen shoppers waited outside the entrances at International Plaza and Bay Street, a high-end mall in Tampa, Fla. Many people said they were planning to browse stores such as Nordstorm or grab coffee at
Starbucks,
and had no specific shopping plans.
“It looks like an average weekend here,” said Lou Martinez, a physician standing in line at the Starbucks inside the mall. The 66-year-old said he is drawn to Black Friday because he likes to “come out where the crowd and commotion is,” but over the years he has noticed its dwindling relevance.
In the past, stores like Macy’s used to be “jam packed when they opened, and it was hard to find a parking spot,” he said. “Today I had no problem finding parking.”
Black Friday has lost some of its grip on shoppers, but retailers and researchers disagree just how much of the spending has shifted. Adobe estimates that online sales for Black Friday will reach $7.5 billion but be eclipsed by Cyber Monday, when it forecasts sales will reach $9.4 billion.
NPD Group, a research firm that analyzes receipts from more than 100,000 consumers, says Black Friday was the top shopping day for both in-store and online last year. “Early deals get some attention, but many consumers will wait for the real thing to get their holiday started,” said NPD analyst Marshal Cohen.
People shopping at a Tractor Supply Co. store in Ashtabula Township, Ohio, on Friday.
Photo:
Warren Dillaway/Associated Press
Some retailers weren’t ready for the spike in online shopping this year.
Costco Wholesale Corp.
extended its Thanksgiving Day-only online deals through Friday after the website slowed and some shoppers reported trouble checking out. “We apologize for any inconvenience,” Costco’s website said Friday morning.
For this year’s November-December period, the National Retail Federation expects retail sales to rise between 3.8% and 4.2% to between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion. That is stronger than the 2.1% growth of last year, but less than the 5.2% increase in 2017. The figures exclude automobiles, gasoline and restaurants.
There are some worrying signs. While retail sales grew modestly in October, categories typically bought during the holidays such as clothing, electronics and recreational goods, reported declines.
Due to a late Thanksgiving, there are six fewer shopping days until Christmas.
“Given the unusually short holiday sales season, the softness in spending was particularly disappointing,” said Lydia Boussour, an economist with Oxford Economics, a research firm.
While some economists expect consumer spending to slow next year, they say there are few signs that shoppers are overextended the way they were heading into the last recession.
Household debt as a share of income is lower today than it was in 2008, and the savings rate remains high, hovering around 8%, according to James Bohnaker, economist at research firm
IHS Markit.
That compares with August 2005, when the savings rate was 2.7%.
“Consumers are still in a pretty good place,” Mr. Bohnaker said.
Shoppers waiting for the Black Friday opening of an At Home store in Frisco, Texas, on Friday.
Photo:
LM Otero/Associated Press
—Sebastian Herrera Khadeeja Safdar, Charity L. Scott and Sarah Nassauer contributed to this article.
Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of discounts to share—and, well, it's the big one. While the holiday sales have been steadily trickling out over the past few weeks, it's now Black Friday, which means the floodgates are officially open for tech deals across the Web.
Now, as is often the case with major shopping events like this, the majority of the offers retailers are pushing don't totally hold up. Sometimes the prices aren't much lower than you'll see at other points in the year, other times the products aren't worth buying in the first place. (If there's a product you're interested in but don't see below, we recommend using a price-tracking site to ensure you're not overpaying.) But with lots of consumer tech, Black Friday and Cyber Monday often do result in the lowest prices of the year. With that in mind, the Dealmaster has been burning the midnight oil to find the Black Friday tech deals that are most worth considering. You can find the fruits of his labor below.
There are simply too many notable deals going on now to give a quick recap here, but we've called out a few of our favorite offers based on testing the Dealmaster and the rest of the Ars team has done in the past. There's a truckload of discounts on video games, PC gear, headphones, TVs, streaming devices, and more alongside that. We'll do our best to update this roundup as deals expire and new ones become available, but for now, let's try to make your holiday shopping a little less hectic.
If you're still in need of a cheap way to stream 4K video, Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K is down to $25 for Black Friday. That's a $25 discount and matches the streaming dongle's price from Amazon Prime Day. We've gone over the pros and cons of the Fire TV Stick 4K a few times before: in short, it's powerful, it supports nearly all of the major streaming services, it works with a variety of HDR formats, and its voice searching functionality is about as good it gets with these things. Its user interface can be somewhat messy, though, and it tends to push Amazon content first and foremost, which might be annoying if you don't use Prime Video. We still like the overall package a little bit more than the Roku Streaming Stick+, but if you want a more simplistic UI above all else, we'll mention that Roku's alternative is going for $30 for its Black Friday sale.
Nintendo Switch (latest model) + $25 Amazon.com credit for $298.99 at Amazon (redeem on-site credit - normally $324.99).
While this isn't a huge savings in a vacuum, it is the best Switch offer available if you're planning to buy Nintendo's game console regardless. Simply hover over the "Extra Savings" text in Amazon's listing, click "Redeem," and Amazon says it'll send you $25 in site credit within seven days. According to the offer's fine print, the credit will only be good for 60 days after it's applied to your Amazon account and only works with products listed as being "sold by" (not "fulfilled by") Amazon itself.
The Switch goes for $300 on its own, but the offer Nintendo is running at other retailers pairs an older model of the console paired with a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That could be worth it if you're itching to play Mario Kart, but Amazon's deal covers the Switch model released earlier this year, which features significantly improved battery life compared to the variant that launched in 2017. As a result, we think this is the bundle worth jumping for while it's still available.
With a $70 discount across retailers, Apple's latest entry-level iPad is back down to its joint-lowest price to date. We'll note that if you can afford to pay another $200 or so for an iPad Air, you'll get a not-insignificant step up in build quality and long-term processing power. We haven't seen any noteworthy deals on that tablet, however, and the new 10.2-inch model here remains an excellent tablet for casual media consumption and lighter work here and there.
Apple AirPods (latest model) true wireless earphones for $129 at Amazon (normally $144).
This is the lowest we've seen Apple's ultra-popular true wireless earphones at a major retailer and about $15 off where they've sat for the last several months on Amazon. The AirPods certainly aren't the best-sounding headphones, and they still won't survive a cross-country flight in one charge, but we won't deny how intuitive they are to use if you're already an iPhone user. Stepping up to the AirPods Pro or Beats Powerbeats Pro will grant you similar convenience with active noise cancellation and a more stable fit, respectively, but those pairs do go for quite a bit more.
In general, the most popular Instant Pot models range from $69 to $129 when not on sale, but big shopping events like Black Friday here are when it drops the farthest. This deal on the Instant Pot Duo 60 is about as low as we've seen it to date.
Samsung EVO Select (256GB) microSDXC card for $27.99 at Amazon (normally $39.99).
Here's a good opportunity to add a bunch of microSD storage space to your smartphone, Switch, GoPro, or whatever other device for not much money. The EVO Select isn't as fast as something like the also-discounted SanDisk Extreme Plus—particularly if you wanted to, say, run a Raspberry Pi's OS off of it—but it's not not dramatically far off for storing and recording video. It becomes much better value when you can get 256GB for $28, which is the lowest price we've seen on this variant of to date.
RavPower RP-PC058 10W Qi wireless charger for $16.99 at Amazon (normally $26.99).
Now's a great time to buy the new version of our favorite Qi wireless charger, the RavPower RP-PC058, at a new low price of $16.99. This wireless charging pad supports fast-charging for most smartphones—10W for Samsung and other Android devices, 7.5W for iPhones—and 5W power for non-fast charging devices.
RavPower's charger was consistently the fastest wireless charging pad in our testing, powering up smartphones from 0 to 100 percent in 4.5 hours or less. Most handsets will also get between 30 and 37 percent battery after sitting on the wireless charger for just one hour. You can even leave your smartphone case on while charging as the device can transfer power through cases that are up to 3mm thick.
Quick and efficient charging is important for any wireless charger, but just as important is the design and any extra perks it has. RavPower's wireless charger has a non-slip coating on the top and bottom, keeping it in place on your bedside table or desk while also preventing your smartphone from sliding off. We also appreciate that RavPower's wireless charger comes with an AC adapter in the box. It's rare to see a wireless charger with an included AC adapter below $30, so grab this one while you can.
If you're willing to pay for a premium pair of noise-cancelling headphones, this $70 discount on Sony's WH-1000XM3 should lighten the load on your wallet. As we noted in our recent travel tech gift guide, these are a superb blend of comfort, fun (and customizable) sound quality, and the strongest active noise-cancellation we've tested on a pair of headphones so far. They'll get you more than 20 hours of battery life, too. We'll note that Bose's QuietComfort 35 II is going for the same price for Black Friday—that pair has physical buttons and a slightly lighter design, so if you can't stand touch controls, you'll still be getting a good pair. But we think the XM3s are still the more complete product.
SanDisk's Extreme Portable SSD has always been a great investment, but this Black Friday sale price of $139.99 for the 1TB model makes it even better. It's a surprisingly small SSD, measuring 3.8 x 1.9 x 0.3 inches, but it's also more rugged than most external drives. It's IP55 water- and dust-resistant, and it can withstand shocks (up to 1500G), vibrations (5g RMS, 10-2000HZ), and drops from up to two meters.
It's also one of the fastest portable SSDs we tested when we picked our favorite USB-C accessories (our general favorite, the Samsung T5, is also on sale for $13 more). Built for PC and Mac users, it's great for storing high-res images, videos, and other documents that you want to keep in place that's both digitally and physically safe. It also comes with a USB-C to C cable and a USB-C to A cable, allowing you to connect it to nearly any computer without needing an adapter. SanDisk's Extreme Portable SSD usually stays at $165.99, only dropping close to $139 on rare occasions, so now's the time to snag it if you're looking for an all-purpose, high-performing, and ultra-portable SSD.
HP Envy 13t laptop - Intel Core i7-10510U, 13.3-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 16GB Optane for $649.99 at HP (normally $899.99).
It may not be a flagship, but HP's Envy 13t laptop is a solid laptop made even better by its Black Friday price of $649. The Envy line doesn't have as much flare as the Spectre line, but over the past few years HP has added more to it to make it a bit more luxurious. The 13t laptop has a metal design with a silver satin finish along with angled edges that give it a more lux feel. It's not the thinnest or the lightest laptop, but that actually helps it in some ways—in particular HP kept it thinner than most laptops in its price range but managed to include two USB-A ports with draw-jaw designs on its sides.
It also has a few key features that have become standard in flagship devices, namely a fingerprint sensor and a webcam kill switch. The former lets you log in using your fingerprint and Windows Hello, while the latter cuts off the electricity to the webcam so you can increase the level of privacy you have while using the notebook. This particular model that's on sale is pretty powerful as well, featuring a 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD plus 16GB of Intel Optane memory. It's arguably just as powerful and efficient as an HP Spectre machine, just with a more subdued design and a few fewer, high-end features. Our biggest complaints with this machine are its lack of Thunderbolt 3 port (but it does have one USB-C port) and its barrel charging port, but those are small prices to pay for a laptop that's well worth its Black Friday price of $649.
Sony PlayStation 4 Slim (1TB) + The Last of Us: Remastered, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition for $199.99 at Walmart and Best Buy (normally $299.99).
Sony PlayStation 4 Pro (1TB) + Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for $299.99 at Best Buy (normally $399.99).
Sony PlayStation 4 Pro (1TB) - Death Stranding Limited Edition bundle for $299.99 at GameStop (normally $399.99).
Sony PlayStation VR + Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Skyrim VR, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Everybody’s Golf VR, and PlayStation VR Worlds for $199.99 at Best Buy, and GameStop (normally $299.99).
Sony PlayStation VR + 2x PlayStation Move controllers + Blood & Truth + Everybody's Golf VR for $249.99 at Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy (normally $349.99).
Microsoft Xbox One X (1TB) + Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $349.99 at Walmart and Best Buy (normally $499.99).
Microsoft Xbox One S (1TB) + Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $199.99 at Walmart and Best Buy (normally $299.99).
