Foot traffic at U.S. retail stores and malls on the Saturday before Christmas, or Super Saturday, which is typically one of the busier shopping days of the year, didn't show as much robustness as on Black Friday this year, when traffic approached or even surpassed those on the same day in 2019 for many retailers, according to Placer.ai data.

Visits to Target stores dropped 3.1% on Black Friday compared to the same day in 2019, and that gap increased to 6.5% on Super Saturday, Placer.ai reports. Walmart actually saw more visits on Black Friday 2021 than Black Friday 2019, up 2.8%. But on the Saturday before Christmas, traffic was down 11.5% compared with 2019.

“Not only were visits down for many retailers on Super Saturday, but the gaps [in visits compared to 2019] were actually bigger than those seen on Black Friday — indicating that rising COVID cases had a significant effect," Placer.ai Vice President of Marketing Ethan Chernofsky said in a statement provided to Bisnow.

That effect might not be simply people staying home from shopping, however. Placer.ai data also shows that Target saw visits up 3.8% overall in November compared with two years ago, even though Thanksgiving visits disappeared and Black Friday visits declined.

Target and Walmart also both saw increases in foot traffic in visits during the first 17 days of December compared to 2019, Placer.ai found, suggesting that many shoppers were looking to avoid major shopping days such as Black Friday and Super Saturday and were spacing out their visits.

Not all retailers or retail properties experienced such stark variations between Black Friday and Super Saturday this year. Indoor malls, which took the brunt of pandemic-related closures in 2020, saw foot traffic drop 8.5% on Black Friday 2021, compared with two years ago. Foot traffic was down by 7.9% on Super Saturday 2021 compared with 2019.

Despite lower foot traffic, sales seem to be up this year from 2019. U.S. retail sales were up by 12% on Black Friday 2021 compared with 2019, reaching $34.9B and besting the previous sales record of $31.2B set in that last pre-pandemic year, according to Customer Growth Partners, which estimates Super Saturday sales this year to be even higher at $38.6B.