The shopping frenzy may be starting to die down but several people were up early Friday morning to find the best Black Friday deals.
Some stores opened before midnight hoping to bring in customers. Kmart and Meijer were open all day on Thursday. Best Buy and Target opened at midnight.
Each year, Thanksgiving begins with spending time with family and enjoying the homemade food. Then, for many, the fun begins later in the day.
“I came right after I had turkey dinner, then I was out,” said Sarah Fox, a Black Friday shopper.
Some people were bundled up with blankets and books to pass the time while others planned their strategies.
“I [look at the] price and see which one's going to be the best buy,” said Melissa Murawski.
Among each other, they talked about which were the biggest bargains and where to go to get them. Before these bargain hunters could get their hands on anything they had to wait for several hours in line.
“I didn't want to wait out here this long,” said Marissa Mark.
As usual, people popped up a tent and camped out. Lines formed early on Thursday and grew rapidly as the day went on.
“We’ve been standing here since 7:30,” said Stephanie Siroris who was surprised that she was even participating in the Black Friday craze.
The line snaked around the parking lot at Toys R Us, went beyond the boundaries of Best Buy and the lines surrounded Super Target in Mishawaka.
But what was new this year was the rush started early. Stores like Wal-mart and Meijer were open all day on Thursday. Toys R Us kicked things off at 9 p.m. while others followed at midnight.
To control crowds, every minute employee’s allowed 50 people to go inside but it did not take long for shoppers to fill their carts:
The hottest items this season were HD flat-screen TV’s under $300 and they were gone in seven minutes after the store opened.
But was any of it worth the wait? That depends who you ask.
“Probably will be [last time to shop on Black Friday],” said Karla Bowman. “I’ll wait until it's not so busy.”
The next big shopping day is Cyber Monday where sales are expected to break records, topping more than $1.2 billion.
