Shoppers hit the stores in search of Black Friday deals

In case new deals pop up over the course of Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and the weekend leading into Cyber Monday, shopping online gives you the flexibility to find and act on new sales as they happen. “We eat. We go have fun – the excitement of it, the sales”, said Livaudais, who has been Black Friday shopping with her family for 20 years and got shirts made this year for the occasion this year.

“Now, I’m looking for the deals online and going out to stores to get them”, said Gentry, who was joined his father and mother.

That rush you’re used to seeing on Black Friday morning?

“It’s still insane, I mean we had a line all the way back to the other side of the store”, Kinney said.

For Amanda Royer and her mom, Cindy, shopping on Black Friday is a tradition – but not necessarily because of the deals. Some auto manufacturers are running Black Friday sales that last an entire month, and you may recall that for the past couple of summers, some retailers have offered Black Friday in July sales.

Target is opening Thanksgiving Day at 6 p.m. and staying open until 11 p.m. on Friday at many stores.

The days of waiting in line for hours outside of your favorite store to grab the best deal seem to be slowly fading.

No sooner had the Thanksgiving meals been digested than the shopper hit the stores for bargain Black Friday deal. So far there are no reports of serious injuries this year. Gap and New York & Co. The National Retail Federation is expecting holiday sales to rise 3.7 percent, slower than last year’s 4.1 percent growth rate, due to stagnant wages and sluggish job growth.

Best Buy opened their doors at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving and crowds continued to pour through until the early morning hours Friday. They started four or five years ago, but opening times have moved earlier since then, he said.

The company also said it sold an iPad every second throughout the day, on average. It took eight minutes for all to enter the store. Its best sellers were televisions, game consoles and movies and toys generated by Star Wars.

Some of the fastest trending products Thursday included NordicTracktreadmills, Toshiba Satellite laptops and Lego Disney Princess, according to IBM Watson Trend, which also tracks tens of millions of online conversations through social media, reviews, blogs and comments.