Black Friday Started Before Thanksgiving Dinner

Rivera said that although she was taking advantage of the Thanksgiving Day sales, she wouldn’t mind if stores closed entirely on the holiday.

Some shoppers made it a priority to be at the front of the lines. By Wednesday evening, there were just two tents outside Best Buy on North Dale Mabry Highway.

Several retailers are banking on shoppers braving the rainy weather to do some early Black Friday shopping.

Thanksgiving increasingly has become the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, with the country’s biggest retailers rolling out their biggest deals on the holiday. “With millions of Floridians starting their holiday shopping in October, it’s important for retailers to respond to those shopping habits and make sure they’re capturing those customers by providing them with the same memorable shopping experience before Thanksgiving that they would receive after it”.

“I knew the TV would be gone if I didn’t get here early”, Boyd said.

One Yuman said, “I don’t think so not this year”.

Sergio Posada, 21, showed up outside J.C. Penney at Westfield Wheaton mall in time for the 3 p.m. opening, but he didn’t go in.

Gerri Clark, the store manager at Kmart, says the crowds started to stream in Thursday. Online sales will be up as well, rising between 6 percent and 8 percent to up to $105 billion, the NRF believes. “I went there first but I saw the line and I came here instead”.

“We got criticized by our family the whole day but a sale is a sale and a deal is a deal”, Soucy said.

John Lewis has banned its employees from using staff discounts on its website on Black Friday.

According to the National Retail Federation, about 30 million people will shop on Thanksgiving.

John Drost of Vernon, Carlos Oliva of Windsor and Kailendra Maharjan of Mansfield had been in line since Thursday morning and were all hoping to get the Toshiba laptop and other items.

Vargas, who was at the J.C. Penney in Wayne on Thursday, said he wanted to surprise his wife with an expensive winter coat that she said she wanted.

“I just feel bad for the people who are working”, Milana said.