Black Friday shoppers seek bargains

Many retailers open their doors on Thanksgiving Day, also known as Gray Thursday, cannibalising Black Friday sales, he noted.

One of those shoppers was Travis Campbell, of Minneapolis, who waited in line for three hours outside the Best Buy in Minnetonka to buy a 48-inch Samsung TV. On Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, retailers trumpet special deals that kick off the year-end holiday shopping season.

Afterward, parking lots were the scene of three-dimensional games of Tetris, as shoppers who just liberated televisions the size of Ping-Pong tables from inside Best Buy or Target tried to fit them into their cars. The store opened at 6 o’clock Thursday night. More than 70,000 shoppers turned out today to get the Black Friday bargains at West Acres Mall in Fargo. “The deals have been tremendous”, said China Lloyd as she was shopping for her kids.

Still, stores aren’t waiting around to push discounts on holiday goods until the official weekend. Many stores around the country were full on Thanksgiving evening, Reuters reported. But there are other doorbusters that are just wonderful. “By 12 o’clock midnight it had started to die off and simmer down and you could do great shopping”, shopper Molly Green said. Members of the Unchained Brotherhood, a motorcycle club for recovering addicts with chapters across Washington, stood out in the cold along North Market Street near the Renegade Classics motorcycle parts store, collecting donations and toys for kids.

Adobe, which monitors online sales, said digital retail sales overall were on track to be up 22 percent over last Thanksgiving Day and likely exceeded $1.7 billion.

It’s created to keep large chains from putting mom and pop stores out of business.

Electronics, books and music top the list for gifts adults are looking for this year, Ebates said in a news release.

“We saw a little bit of an increase last night at store opening”, said Andi Lett, the Store Team Leader.

“It’s insane, ludicrous. It’s my first year and maybe my last”, said Isbell.

Decastro said she’d rather shop on Black Friday and stay home with her family on the Thanksgiving holiday. It has become a tradition for some of them. The industry group will publish the results of the weekend on Sunday. Some shoppers said there were good deals they couldn’t pass up whereas others said it’s better online.