Compared to last Thanksgiving, lines were relatively short during the day despite sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s.
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But the search for the best deals meant shoppers had to put celebrating Thanksgiving on hold.
“They’re all drinking, and I’m the sober one out shopping”, she said.
“This is my first time doing a Black Friday”, Nixon said. On Thanksgiving at 6 p.m., most Macy’s stores across the country opened its doors to thousands of early bird shoppers in search of sales, door buster deals and limited-time-offers.
The online rush comes as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Macy’s Inc. and other chains roll out their Black Friday specials, aiming to get more shoppers into stores. “We sometimes shop on Thanksgiving Day, depending on what the stores are offering”.
“We’re encouraging people in the local community to shop local”, said Suzanne Nolfo Carlos, Houma-Terrebonne chamber president and CEO.
“We checked out all the deals online and we thought Kohl’s had the best deal”, Baghdad said. “It definitely helps and it definitely pays off to come early”, said Gamble.
Many other shoppers agreed that daytime shopping on Thanksgiving was preferable to daybreak on Friday.
A number of stores are also closed Thursday. Staples has reversed course and will close on the holiday.
“We do it for the kids”, said Lance Robinson, of Cottonwood Heights, who had spent almost the whole day going from store to store to gather Christmas gifts for his grandkids.
Some of the most popular items included: a 32-inch Roku TV for $125, a 7-inch RCA Tablet for $28.88 and a Nintendo Wii U bundle for $249.
A co-worker was always out there every morning with his family, one of the traditions that kept them strong as a unit.
Toys R Us: Opens Black Friday at 7 a.m. That equals almost 20 percent of retailers’ annual sales of $3.2 trillion. While a few sale items were covered by a “1-hour guarantee”, most had limited quantities – meaning some shoppers left the store empty handed.
Hector Vargas of Paterson said he has been shopping for the past two weeks, taking advantage of early deals.
“I’m waiting in line with my son, who really wants an XBOX”, Taylor said. How bad has it gotten?
While Black Friday used to be the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season, it’s now an extended weekend of shopping, starting on Thursday.
Michael Schumacher has been the first in line on Black Friday at Target in Fargo five years in a row.
Some shoppers were out for their first time.
J.C. Penney opened at 3 p.m. this year, two hours earlier than a year ago.
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They arrived at the Best Buy on Route 18 in East Brunswick at 1 a.m. and set up a four-person tent. Xinzhou Liu, a student from MU, said he plans to go shopping Thursday night for presents because he will go home to China over winter break.
