Chrisanne DuPuis, a 47-year-old who was shopping at Macy’s flagship store on State Street Friday morning, has been taking advantage of Black Friday discounts since the 1980s. “In the ’80s, that’s what you did,” DuPuis said. “You got up. You went out. You got the Black Friday deal.” DuPuis, who lives in Minnesota and was in Chicago to be with her extended family over Thanksgiving, was shopping with her teenage daughter, two of her sisters and a bunch of nieces. By around 9 a.m., the clan had taken over a fitting-room area on the third floor of the department store. DuPuis explained that before purchasing an article of clothing, it’s important to consider factors like how much one needs the item and how great one feels wearing it. One goal of Friday’s outing was to get Christmas dresses for the daughters. “It’s really fun for the girls. It’s fun for us as moms to watch our girls try on dresses, and it’s also cool to see the cousin element,” she said. “There’s like three different families of cousins in that dressing room right now.” The National Retail Federation expected a record number of people — 183.4 million — to shop in U.S. stores and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. However, Black Friday no longer creates the midnight mall crowds or doorbuster mayhem of recent decades — in large part due to the ease of online shopping and habits forged during the COVID-19 pandemic. On State Street, early birds could start perusing the stock at Macy’s at 6 a.m. But over on the Magnificent Mile, shoppers had to wait until 9 a.m. to enter Water Tower Place and 10 a.m. to browse stores like Nordstrom Rack. Don Wroblewski, who was taking a break from shopping by sitting at a table in a common area of the Block 37 mall on State Street while his wife and daughter hit the stores, said he thought the volume of shoppers seemed low. “We’re not sure if the serious shoppers are already done or haven’t started yet,” Wroblewski, 70, said around 10 a.m. Christopher Wator, a shopper at Block 37’s Banana Republic Factory who also didn’t think the mall was very busy, said his parents live in Naperville and he was in town for Thanksgiving. The 29-year-old now lives in Nashville with his wife, Amanda. Amanda Wator, 28, said shopping at a store on Black Friday isn’t really about finding deals anymore because there are so many deals online. It’s more about getting in the spirit of the holidays and seeing people who are happy because of Thanksgiving and the approach of Christmas. “We’ve always liked the vibe downtown — just the whole Black Friday environment,” Christopher Wator added. Isaiah Hill, a 21-year-old from Miami who was visiting Chicago for the first time, was at the State Street Macy’s with his younger sister. Hill, who was shopping primarily for hoodies, said he’ll often decide he wants to purchase an article of clothing when the item catches his eye. He said he was in awe of the size of Macy’s and the 14 floors of the Marshall Field and Co. Building. In Miami, the malls and stores usually have just one or two floors, he said. “Your city is so big — like all these big stores and stuff like this. We don’t see stuff like this in Miami,” Hill added. “It’s crazy over here.” Close to lunchtime at Water Tower Place, other out-of-towners were enjoying Chicago’s rich shopping scene. Jamie Groat, 43, and her husband spent at least 45 minutes helping their daughter pick out an American Girl doll. “We’re from Arkansas. We don’t have an American Girl doll store,” Groat said. “We’re visiting family, and we really wanted to come and let our 7-year-old daughter pick out her first American Girl doll. And what a perfect day to do it … because you get a discount.” The Associated Press contributed.