Taylor Swift fans turn out on Black Friday for vinyl album, new Swift book

Young Taylor Swift fans and their parents lined up outside some of Target's nearly 2,000 U.S. stores early on Black Friday to buy copies of her new Eras Tour book and vinyl album.

Hoping to buck a long stretch of slowing sales at Target stores - with penny-pinched shoppers making purchases at rival retailers - the big-box chain teamed up with Swift to build on the fan momentum she experienced following her Eras Tour concerts.

Several customers queued up outside Target stores as early as 5 a.m. ET in freezing temperatures, with most of them there to snap up Swift merchandise.

FILE PHOTO: Taylor Swift merchandise on display at a Target store in North Bergen, New Jersey, U.S, November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Siddharth Cavale/File Photo

"Yeah, it's really cold, but we're here to get Taylor Swift's tour book and her latest vinyl drop," Carlos Miracle, a 31-year-old Swift fan, said while waiting outside a Chicago store.

Parents of teenage daughters and youngsters in their late 20s were up and about to buy Swift's Eras Tour book, priced at $39.99 at Target. The retailer is also making available a vinyl and CD version of "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" for the first time, containing 35 tracks, including four acoustic bonus songs.

According to Target's website, the vinyl version is being sold for $59.99, and CDs for $17.99.

A shopper peruses Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" CD at a Target store in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S., on Black Friday, November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Siddharth Cavale

In Los Angeles, a 31-year-old accountant named Landon McCall said, “I originally came for the vinyl, and I saw the book there, too."

A Target store employee "was like, ‘Hey, this will go by fast. It’s what everyone's wanting. I sold 30 this morning within the first 30 minutes,'" McCall said. "So, I was like, I might as well just get both ... My daughter likes Taylor Swift, too, so I thought it'd be something for her and her mom to go through the book and look at it together."

Swift, 34, has been setting music industry milestones and boosting local economies with The Eras Tour. The last leg of the concert is currently happening in Canada, a phenomenon that some economists have termed "Swiftflation."

A shopper picks up Taylor Swift's new Eras Tour book during Black Friday shopping at a Target store in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Swift released her latest Tortured Poets album in May during Target's first quarter, boosting its sales in the entertainment category by a high single-digit percentage.

On Friday, Julia Corrin, a 39-year-old from Pittsburgh, bought the Era Tour book. The tour was a "really special moment ... and it'll be great to have something to remember it by," she said.

In New Jersey, 28-year-old Amy Webb was in line to get her hands on the new Eras Tour book. "I usually don't buy anything during the holiday season, but I wanted to get my hands on this before it sells out," she said.

A view of a Taylor Swift merchandise at a Target in Edgewater, New Jersey, U.S., November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Siddharth Cavale

On X, formerly known as Twitter, users shared images of long queues to grab Swift merchandise. Some noted that a few Target stores saw nearly empty shelves for the Eras Tour book and were out of Tortured Poets vinyl by 9:30 a.m.

Target will offer the Eras Tour items on its app and website beginning Saturday to boost sales during the holiday season, which is shorter than in previous years. There are only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"That's the only reason I am here; we don't want to go online and see that it is sold (out)," said a 35-year-old Marriott Hotel employee, Adrian Antuna, who was waiting to get his hands on the Eras Tour book and a couple of vinyl albums.