Retailers around the United States are keeping their fingers crossed for a cold and dry Black Friday since this will mark the beginning of the crucial Christmas shopping season. They expect millions of customers to visit their stores on this day.

However, because many consumers are already experiencing financial strain, Christmas spending in the United States is anticipated to increase at the slowest pace in five years. The vast majority of large shops significantly reduced their seasonal staffing.

“Consumers are still being very cautious, so if holiday sales do go up, we think it will be due to inflation raising prices,” said Jessica Ramirez, a senior research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates. Ramirez was referring to the fact that consumers are still being very cautious.

The National Retail Federation, a retail trade organization in the United States, conducted a study of 8,424 people at the beginning of November and found that holiday shoppers in the country intended to spend an average of $875 on holiday goods, which is $42 more than they did the year before. Clothing, gift cards, and toys are top of most shopping lists.

It is estimated that on Black Friday this year, a record 130.7 million individuals will shop in stores or online in the United States.

Executives believe that the popularity of buying online has reduced the significance of Black Friday as a single-day event. According to what Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette told investors earlier this month, several retailers, including Amazon and Macy’s, now offer offers as early as October and frequently provide more reductions as we get closer to Christmas.

Most shops in the United States were closed on Thanksgiving, but they will reopen their doors to customers at either 5 or 6 in the morning on Friday. A coalition of activist organizations, including the antiwar group “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism,” has issued a call for “disruptions and rallies” on Black Friday in vital commercial hubs to demand that aid be cut off to Israel and that fighting should halt. The New York Police Department declared on Wednesday that there are “currently no credible threats to any individual event or to New York City in general” over the holiday weekend.

After an abnormally warm October, many retailers, including Kohl’s (KSS.N) and Nordstrom (JWN.N), informed investors on post-earnings calls this week that they had made investments in coats, cashmere sweaters, and Ugg boots to attract Christmas consumers, and according to the information on its website, Macy’s (M.N.) advertised Black Friday sales on seasonal apparel, including discounts of 60–65 percent on jackets for both men and women.

Some stores save their most significant price reductions for the weekend before Thanksgiving. However, big-box retailers such as Walmart (WMT.N), Lowe’s (LOW.N), and Home Depot (HD.N) either kept their announced discounts or made them even more attractive.

The biggest concern for merchants on Black Friday is whether or not customers who are fed up with rising prices will be enticed to take advantage of the sales. According to Mari Shor, a senior equities analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, several product categories that were among the most popular purchases made on Black Friday in past years have been severely hurt by the recent decline in consumer’s willingness to spend money on non-essential items.

After reporting to investors this week that customers are still delaying the purchase of expensive items, retailers such as Best Buy (BBY.N) are providing discounts ranging from $100 to $1,600 on a variety of consumer electronics products such as laptops, flat-screen TVs, and KitchenAid mixers.

As a result of the slowdown in spending on luxury goods, department shops like Nordstrom and Bergdorf Goodman have begun offering deep discounts on luxury goods like Balenciaga shoes and Oscar de la Renta jewelry, amongst other brands. On Tuesday, Nordstrom President Pete Nordstrom addressed the company’s investors with the following statement: “Designer remains pressured, primarily in shoes and handbags, and we continue to right-size our inventory to meet that demand.”