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Anna Staab gets her ticket at Walmart for a $199 Xbox with Kinect and a $50 gift certificate.
By Eve Tahmincioglu
Extended Black Friday hours may have angered those store employees who had to work before their turkey dinners were digested, but many shoppers were happy with this year's earlier store opening times because they found fewer raucous crowds and shorter lines as a result.
“This was the absolute calmest Black Friday I have ever experienced,” said Nathan Luna, 24, who began his shopping trek at 12:08 a.m. this morning and headed to Best Buy in Wheaton, Md.
While things may have been more relaxed, projections for the number of consumers heading out on the biggest shopping day of the year are up.
According to data compiled for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, up to 152 million people plan to shop over the Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), that's higher than the 138 million people who planned to do so last year. According to the survey, 74 million people say they will definitely hit the stores and another 77 million are waiting to see if the bargains are worth braving the cold and the crowds.
Overall, electronics and clothing were among the biggest scores for many consumers, especially video game players and high-end fashions. And many shoppers said they found the sales items they wanted, unlike past Black Fridays that offered slim pickings; and lots of sales people to help them navigate the stores.
Here are some first-hand accounts of the day and deals from Black Friday aficionados:
“The crowds were very well-behaved,” said Brad Williams, 39, an analyst for Duke University who headed out at 9:15 p.m. last night with his wife Wendy. “The line at Target, as I said, was enormous, but my wife said that the people there were jovial and pretty Zen about the wait. No pushing or shoving whatsoever.”
The couple has two young kids, but grandparents take the kids after Thanksgiving dinner to their house so Brad and his wife can shop unfettered.
"The crowds seemed to be bigger this year at Target and Kohl's, but smaller elsewhere," Williams added. "I think that has to do with when we arrived. We were in the teeth of the initial rush at those two places, but by the time we got to Crabtree, about 3 a.m., that had subsided and the second rush, when non-crazy people are getting up, hadn't yet begun."
Brad Williams
Orderly crowds at the Tanger Outlets in Mebane, N.C.
The deals overall were good, he said, but his “best bargains” were “a pair of Lucky Brand jeans for my wife, which were $18 (original outlet price was $69.50, they were on clearance for $30, and 40 percent off that), and a Brooks Brothers sports shirt, which was $29.90.”
Wendy Novicenskie
Brad Williams shows off his Black Friday loot.
Anna Staab, 51, Metamora, Il., hit the stores around 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving and found lots of merchandise available at Walmart and Menards, a regional department store chain. “After seeing plenty of merchandise left at Walmart at this hour we wondered if it had something to do with the economy or if people were just avoiding it due to the earlier hours,” she surmised.
Staab, a retired Post Master who has seven kids living with her, some foster, some adopted and some biological, said she needed to be out early to get the big bargains and ended up with quite a few.
Her biggest complaint was where Walmart placed the sales items.
“Big box items, i.e. trampoline, ping pong table, power ride on toys, were all at the back of the store. Customers had to fight the crowds with the huge boxes,” she explained. “They need a better system for those.”
Nathan Luna
Nathan Luna grabbed an iPad for $454.
And Staab didn't like that many retailers staggered sales throughout the night.
"Certain things went on sale at 10 p.m. Thursday, then midnight, then 8 a.m.," she noted.
Besides a few annoyances, she was able to get the one thing she really wanted. She's most proud of the Xbox with Kinect she got at Walmart for $199 and a $50 Walmart card included, about half the price it was last year.
The iPad 2 was the only thing Nathan Luna was looking for.
He arrived at the Best Buy in Wheaton, Md., at 12:20 a.m. and found the parking log jammed and a line of more than 700 people.
“Less-experienced Black Friday shoppers would have probably turned around in horror, but I pressed on,” said Luna, a TV photographer who has been Black Friday shopping since he was a kid when he shopped with his mom and grandmother.
Nathan Luna
Lines formed at the Best Buy in Wheaton, Md., and police were on hand to keep things moving smoothly.
Despite the crowds, he said, a group of police officers helped shuffle shoppers into the store and the line within 20 minutes after the store opened.
Nathan Luna
There were big crowds at the Best Buy in Wheaton, Md., but lines moved quickly, according to one shopper.
“I was greeted by a wall of Dynex 32-inch TVs and thousands of people jamming up the aisles,” he described. “I asked the greeter where the iPads were, and he directed me to the back of the store. I had to bump a few elbows to get back there, but when I did, I noticed something new.”
Instead of a line snaking around the entire store, he said, there were check-out lines scattered throughout the store near key items.
“When I got in the iPad line, I literally had eleven people in front of me,” he said, adding that it took about a half hour to check out, compared to the hours it has taken during past Black Fridays.
He eventually got his iPad for $454.
Erin Mellini was happy she paid $10 for VIP parking through Livingsocial for the Rockaway Townsquare Mall in Rockaway, N.J., because she ended up with a prime parking spot.
“The VIP parking was nice and close, and it gave me peace of mind my car was in good hands because the mall security was in charge of it,” she said.
Erin Mellini
Erin Mellini with the hard drive for $30 she was able to snag.
Mellini, 25, a zookeeper and educator from Randolph, N.J., found the mall relatively quiet when she got there at 5 am.
“The stores were not really picked clean,” she added, but “any deep discount item, which you needed a ticket for, was gone.
For example a $199, 42-inch HDTV from Best Buy was gone, but I got an external Toshiba hard drive that I was intending to buy and didn’t have to deal with the mad rush at midnight. I got it for $30 which is a very good price.”
The best deal, she noted, was a $40 WiFi streaming media player from Walmart.
“I was happiest to get that, which was a door-buster deal,” she explained, adding that most of the stores had a great supply of advertised merchandise.
Mellini acknowledged that she and her friend Erica, who joined her on the shopping excursion, didn’t have the same "adrenaline rush" they had on previous Black Fridays because the crowds seemed to be so spread out given the extended hours.
“We still had a great time and intend to maybe go out at midnight next year if that is going to become the norm for stores,” she added.
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This is great optimistic news. Hopefully this Holiday season will be better than expectations predict. The big box stores should boast better profits this year compared to the last 2 or 3 years due to the shambles of the economy. An important part of this spending pattern is being currently overlooked by the big corporate store sponsored media push. That is, our local smaller community Main Streets need some of your budgetary monies as well. Local smaller communities need shoppers too. By staying local, instead of driving 2 or 3 counties over to the larger dept. stores, your purchase dollars are helping, via the tax base and local employment, to keep your hometown public infrastructure in the black. It is understandable that many smaller mom and pop shops do not carry some of the hot new trendy products but they still carry many sought out items in a general sense. If possible purchase some American made products, there are still plenty of products made by Americans. By spending just 50 bucks at a local hometown Main Street store your keeping some of your purchase dollars at the local level. A very smart investment and it allows this circulation of money to stay in the community. By all means shop until you drop this Holiday season,....just sayin...
A web sight with info regarding American made products...
http://www.americansworking.com/index.html
Overspent American lard asses clamoring over each other to buy cheap junk to make themselves feel better. Pathetic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Black Friday is Fools day"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!
This comment may make you feel superior, but it's hardly a fair or accurate remark.
Black Friday is racist. They need to change it to busy friday
Marlen,
Not every "Black Friday Event" occurs at Wall Mart. It occurs everywhere and even online stores like Best Buy as in other news. If you knew how tight some of these margins are for the manufacturers, they make little to no profit and even losses on some of these sale items. It's up to YOU to refrain from clearing out the whole store of other "junk" that you don't really need. If you think computers and other electronics are "junk", why are you even typing into that stupid useless box and looking at that piece of garbage that glows in your face???
marlen 101917,
You know marlen, you are allowed to unpucker your a$$ once or twice a year. It gives people, especially kids, a fun holiday, and it also provides an economic boost to the country.
Go. Try to make a friend or find an able lover. It'll make your life much more satisfying. You're certainly not on any moral high ground. Judging by your statement you're merely embittered and probably alone.
Psychologists and Psychiatrists report every year that in January there is a huge spike in people's levels of anxiety and depression. They report that one of the major causes for this spike is that people overused credit for Christmas buying and now they're having trouble paying the money back. What brilliant people Americans have become.
Optimistic shopping: So far this morning other news reports: 2 shootings, 15 injured in a pepper pray incident, and a bomb. Go Black Friday.
Black Friday is for Dumb Dumbs, its just another way of making the rich get richer !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate the term "black Friday" and all that it implies. It paints Americans as idiots and greedy morons. Gotta get this, gotta get that, gotta have it! Gotta have it! If I don't get it, my husband, wife and/or children will be DEVESTATED!!!
No wonder, when life throws a curve at todays "adults" or older children they turn to drugs because they didn't learn any coping skills when they were kids. Ooooh I have issues because I didn't get what I wanted!
What a weak society we've become.
I'm glad I always keep my tradition of never buying a gift for anyone for any occasion, I never to stand in a line or look for a sale or worry about what to get for whom.
~~~~~~~~~~ Black Friday is just more junk from China & Japan ~~~~~~~~~~
Black Friday is the new April 1.
I hope these shoppers happily remember all their Black Fridays in 40 or 50 years when they find they still have to work to put cat food on the table. Sheer silliness.
Jackie, I think you've just insulted April 1st.
Except that on April 1st it's for fun, and Black Friday it's for real.
The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.
Herbert Marcuse
When we try in good faith to believe in materialism, in the exclusive reality of the physical, we are asking our selves to step aside; we are disavowing the very realm where we exist and where all things precious are kept -- the realm of emotion and conscience, of memory and intention and sensation.
John Updike
“The best things in life aren't things.”
Art Buchwald Quotes
Art Buchwald was a wise man. There are "things" money cannot buy. And I would not trade them for all the money in the world. There are those who believe money and power are what makes one a success. The truth is "You can't take it with you."
I wonder if the 1% could rely on family and friends, if they had to chose between materialism or oxygen?
have you been inspired by #OWS to boycott Black Friday?
Not really. I've been inspired by circumstance and habit to boycott Black Friday.
I don't do black friday, I don't use credit cards to buy. I look year round for bargains. I won't buy the newest 'rage' for a gift. Usable items that will stand the test of time is what I give.
Cash is the best way to pay. I also try to buy local and hand made. Big Box stores get bigger and richer off our need to be materialistic.
I remember working what the day after Thanksgiving in retail in the late '70's and early 80's. I vividly remember early one morning when the electric door to J.L. Hudson's opened (like a garage door), and women (lots of suburbanite types) actually crouched and rushed into the store before the was completely open. I kid you not. That was my introduction to what would eventually be coined Black Friday.
My learning experience in retail during the holidays pretty much convinced me that Christmas shopping is for the most part crazy. Too many rude and angry people at the counters, etc. Rude to me, rude to each other. Glad I left the business.
They'll just return the sh*t the day after xmas anyways lol.
If the retailers did make it out big, I would hope they would give those employees that worked the extra hours a bonus for doing it. I'm not a store empoyee, but I seen the crap they go through.
I'm working a seasonal job at one of the stores mentioned in the article. The people who came in for the opening were paid time and a half, and today and all weekend the store is providing free catered food for the employees. So at least some stores are making an effort for the employees.
Shop 'till you puke!(pepper spray will make you do that)
"due to extended hours"....What a load of crap. People are tapped out and those that aren't are padding their safety nets for a low growth/no growth economic future.
I'm going to spend EVERY dime in my savings, so the stock market will go up, and then, if I get some TRICKLE DOWN, I can RETIRE!!!
You know what Patriot american, There is nothing under the tree for you but a lump of coal, Love Santa
A bunch of brain dead moronic people. Come on 99%ers. Give your money away to the 1%ers. They love you long time. Till your money runs out and then they run you out. F()ken idiots.
So I really didn't have anything I truly wanted or needed, aside from a Winter jacket and boots, which I bought myself at REI before Thanksgiving. When my wife and parents told me I needed to ask for something for Christmas, I came up with an iPad. I've been wanting one, and Apple only puts them on sale for one day out of the year. They pitched in along with me, and I made sure to get one cheaper than I could get it any other day.
No, I didn't use credit: I paid cash. No, I'm not an over-spender: I stuck to my budget. And to top it all off-- I have a savings account and don't live paycheck to paycheck. This was a rare indulgence for me. I'm one of the fortunate people who has a great job/life (I thank God and count my blessings everyday, and the list is long) and decided to indulge in something. I think the people who go on here bashing those of us who like to save a few bucks here and there are the foolish ones. My Black Friday experience was calm and peaceful, and I was finished in under two hours.
So say what you wish. At the end of the day, it didn't take me much effort and I saved a few dollars. Where's the harm in that?
It's funny-- ask most people their stance on the revolutions sweeping the other half of the globe and you'll get silence. Ask them their stance on Black Friday and they'll go absolutely nuts for an hour, hit every story they can possibly comment on just to rant, and say everyone who shops on Black Friday seeking a bargain is a disgrace and ought to be shot by firing squad. Oh well, this story is over-- until next year!
i
I find retailers outrageous to make consumers believe that the only way they are going to get a good deal that they can afford is to stand out in the cold at wee hours of the morning or now midnight--and fight crowds of people and stand in long lines forever. If retailers can afford to put products on "sale" for black Friday--why not leave the stuff on sale for a full week and keep replineshing it as it sells? Why should people have to fight over 10 TVs or 25 Elmo's?
We learned the hard way...last year, the only year we ever tried a black Friday 4 am shopping venture. Saw Sears had a front loading washer/dryer set (expensive set) on sale for $499. Our dryer was pretty much dead-as it took about 3 hours to dry anything and our washer from the late 70s was on its last legs too--making lots of knocking sounds. A family of 6 has got to have those appliances. Stood in line--not far from the doors as we came extra early--but, the only 3 the store offered were sold out before we even moved towards the doors at "opening" time. Went to Home Depot and got a different set that was 50% off--spent more than we planned--but we had to get something for the family. Never again though--we can wait till another sale day.
What sanctimonious bunch of gackasses! Like your own lives are so perfect in every way that you have the right to make such comments and sit judgement on other people about anything. I don't go out on Black Friday myself, but a lot of the people who go out then are just trying to stretch their budget and are not necessarily paying on credit cards. You undoubtedly own or will own a lot of the products you are blasting here or wish you could afford to own.
A huge part of us did not participate in the economy and probably will not till we have jobs and a future. We can only speculate those that have the money to spend will buy this weekend what they need and sales will plummet like a rock through Dec. just in time for January's recession to kick it all in with more layoffs coming. The financial districts of the world are still in a real mess thanks to Wall Street and the likes all over the world. Greed got them into trouble but only deflation can save them. Its sad because no one is willing to live in a volume based business. They gave that right over to China. This is why China is prospering.
This year's Black Friday shoppers are finding fewer raucous crowds and shorter lines as a result of the extended hours. YOUR HEADLINE? Thats why two were shot and a whole bunch of people were perrey sprayed by a crazy woman. MORE BS form BSNBC, the leftist liars.
ren
re: post #23
Your comment sounds pretty dishonest to me as you never provide a complete statement. Try this one on for size- " Out of 300 million American citizens, Black Friday claimed 2 lives and a small group of people were pepper sprayed.". Thats a grand total of under 25 people out of 300 million, ren. In the future make complete statements or claim to be a right-wing propagandist/liar before pointing a finger at MSNBC. YOUR statement was half truth much more than theirs was. You're picking up bad habits from those Fox propagandists and liars, ren. Your momma would be ashamed.
black friday was good to me in the woods by 6 am 1 nice buck and 1 nice doe the freezer will be full and my guns are already clean and put away in the safe, thanks to the inventer of black friday it keeps the woods a bit quieter
For all the hype about Black Friday I was astonished at the few requests I had from people to buy tablets at the big box electronics retailer I worked for. People wanted laptops and digital cameras. So much for the hype about tablets.