BATON ROUGE - In years past, Black Friday was always an event shoppers eagerly awaited. This year, a day before the biggest shopping event of the year, the Mall of Louisiana was closed.

“It is looking like a ghost town around here. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen the mall looking like this, like you could drop a pin outside and somebody will hear it right now," Keshawn Wilson said.

Wilson was at the mall to get a last-minute Thanksgiving outfit and was shocked to see the front entrance locked up. 

“If they want to close down for a whole day, we can’t blame them. I know a lot of citizens were disappointed, but they got money. They need to go celebrate their family like you celebrate yours," Wilson said. 

Long lines, crime and the pandemic, has pushed more shoppers to explore alternatives.

“Cyber Monday is where it’s at for me. But Black Friday, as long as there isn’t a line, I’ll go check it out," said Jean-Luc Bourgeois, a shopper outside of Rouses Market. 

Cyber Monday, has seemingly become the go-to for more shoppers this years, allowing people to conveniently buy anything their heart desires at a fraction of the original price. 

“Amazon is killing it with that. There’s a lot of different companies that are killing it with that. There’s no lines you have to wait in. It’s just one and done, in and out," Bourgeois said.