--- title: The Best Time to Shop on Black Friday to Avoid Crowds description: Getting up early on Black Friday may be worth it after all, according to new data from Google. canonical: https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/ author: Lisa Eadicicco article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-24T20:21:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:07:00.899Z og:title: Here's the Best Time to Shop on Black Friday og:description: When is the best time to avoid long lines? Google has an answer og:url: https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12398ec84416f558/69887221bc6cfc2f313da7cc/gettyimages-528445827.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4608 og:image:height: 2592 og:image:alt: Black Friday og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Best Time to Shop on Black Friday twitter:description: When is the best time to avoid long lines? Google has an answer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12398ec84416f558/69887221bc6cfc2f313da7cc/gettyimages-528445827.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Best Time of Day to Shop on Black Friday > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Lisa Eadicicco](https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/)  ## Lisa Eadicicco Nov 24, 2015 8:21 PM UTC  Crowds of people Move past Macy's during Black Friday super sale shoppers in New York, New York, USA. Crowds of people Move past Macy's during Black Friday super sale shoppers in New York, New York, USA. Zoran Milich—Getty Images  by [Lisa Eadicicco](https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/)  ## Lisa Eadicicco Nov 24, 2015 8:21 PM UTC Although many Black Friday shopping deals are available online, there are some bargains that you can only access in stores. That often means waiting in daunting lines and navigating through densely packed crowds. Google, however, may have a solution. The company [has analyzed foot traffic data](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/infographics/black-friday-store-traffic-data.html) it gathered from a sample of U.S. smartphone users between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25 last year to get an idea of how crowded stores get during the holiday season. The anonymized data was gathered from phones with Location History turned on, which allows Google to track where the device has been. On Black Friday specifically, traffic is usually heaviest in the afternoon rather than the morning, according to Google’s data. It’s lowest between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., with the crowds starting to pick up around 8 a.m. Foot traffic peaks between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., which is when you should avoid shopping if you want to steer clear of the crowds. The best way to bypass the mobs of Black Friday shoppers seems to be getting up early. Google’s graph suggests that foot traffic across all types of retail shops is lowest at around 5 a.m. Although Black Friday is a massively popular day for shopping, most stores see more foot traffic as it gets closer to Christmas. Consumer electronics stores are the exception, as they see peak foot traffic the day after Thanksgiving, Google reports. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/"},"headline":"Here's the Best Time of Day to Shop on Black Friday","datePublished":"2015-11-24T20:21:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:07:00.899Z","description":"If you want to avoid large crowds best set your alarm clock","url":"https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/","keywords":["Living","Tech","Google","Black Friday"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12398ec84416f558/69887221bc6cfc2f313da7cc/gettyimages-528445827.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Eadicicco","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12398ec84416f558/69887221bc6cfc2f313da7cc/gettyimages-528445827.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Black Friday","caption":"Black Friday","creditText":"Zoran Milich—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4126122/black-friday-shopping-best-time/","name":"Here's the Best Time of Day to Shop on Black Friday"}}]}] ```