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Holiday shopping takes off: Early birds gobble up deals

Trevor Hughes, Natalie DiBlasio and Hadley Malcolm
USA TODAY
Dylan Morales pouts while shopping on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014, with his father Rigoberto at Kmart on New York's 34th Street.

Well before carving the turkey and long after slicing up the pumpkin pie, millions of Americans were shopping online and heading out to stores on Thanksgiving in search of bargains as the holiday shopping season officially kicked into high gear.

While some chains and locally operated stores stayed closed for the holiday, many major retailers were opening their doors earlier on Thursday than ever before as Thanksgiving Day is increasingly replacing Black Friday as the traditional start to the holiday shopping season.

Kmart and RadioShack staged early-morning openings on Thanksgiving and Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Sears, J.C. Penney, Macy's and Kohl's were among retailers that opened their doors in the early evening.

The National Retail Federation expects 25.6 million shoppers to take advantage of the Thanksgiving openings and in the biggest shopping weekend of the year, the NRF says 140 million Americans are expected to shop in stores and online for Thanksgiving weekend deals.

Scores of shoppers lined up outside stores hours before in hopes of nabbing deals on TVs, electronics and other heavily-discounted items as doors opened.

Jose Ramos,16, was among the early ones. "It's kind of like a war zone, a bunch of people fighting over things," said Ramos, his breath steaming in pre-dawn darkness as he waited outside a Denver Kmart along with 20 shoppers ahead of a 6 a.m. opening.

Kmart shopper Farrah Castro, 38, stacked her shopping cart with pillows, bookcases and towels. Today wasn't about Christmas shopping, but getting great deals on everyday items. Starting early gave her time to snap up bargains and get home to put dinner in the oven. Castro planned to go out shoe shopping Thursday evening, hoping to begin holiday shopping for her daughters.

"This is what I look forward to," she said. "And I get to eat turkey too."

Store manager Carol Thompson laughed when asked if she had somewhere else to be Thursday.

"I could be sleeping," she said with a smile. "But it's all about the members. If the customers want to come shopping, well, that's why we're here."

More than 600 people had passed through the doors at a Clarksville, Ind., Bass Pro mega store within three hours of its 8 a.m. opening.

Mariah Atwood, who had mapped out her Thanksgiving-Black Friday shopping spree for two weeks, had already been to five stores by 11 a.m. She planned to wake at 3 a.m. Friday to start to knock out her two son's Christmas wish lists.

Shoppers wait in line at dawn outside a Kmart discount store, operated Sears Holdings Corp., ahead of Black Friday in Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014. An estimated 140 million U.S. shoppers are expected to hit stores and the Web this weekend in search of discounts, kicking off what retailers predict will be the best holiday season in three years. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg ORG XMIT: 525581071

Shoppers were divided over the question: Is opening stores on Thanksgiving a wise idea?

Several shoppers said they had no problem with the earlier timing of the sales this year. They had had Thanksgiving dinner and were ready to get out and shop, they said. Others were ambivalent or even criticized the changes.

"I preferred it when Black Friday was Friday, but it's OK," said Nicci Franklin of Raleigh, N.C.

Amy Walker, an Asheville, N.C. native who now lives in Johnson City, Tenn., said she used to shop on the day after Thanksgiving every year and enjoyed it.

When stores open on Thursday, "It takes (time) away from your family," she said. But, she was still shopping Thursday. By Friday, "All the good deals are gone," Walker said.

Among the Meyer family of Brevard County, Fla., mother and daughter disagreed.

Donna Meyer arrived at 10 a.m. and was second in line in advance of the 6 p.m. opening of Kohl's in West Melbourne, Fla. "I do this every year, and I'm normally No. 1. I have stayed four or five days at Best Buy," Meyer bragged. "I like these hours better. Because I've been there for days, and by the time it's nighttime it's crowded."

But her daughter, Robin Meyer, disagreed. She said: "It should be on Black Friday, I believe. It shouldn't be on Thanksgiving, so people can be with their families." She arrived at Target at about 6:45 a.m., claiming the first spot in line in advance of the store's 6 p.m. opening.

Ronald Araujo, 34, of North Carolina took a break from spending the day with family in Port Chester, N.Y., to stand in line at the Best Buy in Hartsdale, N.Y. He was planning to pick up an Xbox, a PlayStation 4 and a television. But did his family mind him taking the time out from their together time for the bargain-hunting excursion?

Heck, no. It was their idea.

"They sent me to do it," he said. "They said, 'We'll cook, you buy.'"

Triphenia Guice spent Wednesday night and Thursday outside a Best Buy in Montgomery, Ala., hoping for a cut-rate TV.

"I slept in the car, slept in a chair, slept on the ground," said Guice, who had plenty of company by Thursday afternoon.

April and Martin McCoy also came for the TV, but they got there less than two hours before opening. They laughed in disbelief at how long some others had waited and said they'd rather enjoy their Thanksgiving.

"That's why we're just getting here," Martin McCoy said.

Guice said she didn't feel like she missed much by skipping a Thanksgiving meal. "I'm sure there'll be some leftovers," she said.

Most big retailers acknowledge that they're starting to offer deals on Thanksgiving that previously were reserved for Black Friday.

Best Buy spokesman Jeff Haydock said among the best Thanksgiving deals were a Samsung 55-inch LED Smart TV, for $899, the lowest price the chain has ever offered on a Samsung ultra-high definition TV of this size. It will be available on Friday— if supplies last.

"Naturally, more of the deals are being pulled into Thursday because our stores are open," Haydock said.

Sears spokesman Brian Hanover said the chain's Thanksgiving specials spill into Black Friday. But the quantities for the 1,000 door busters are limited. They include Nordic Track treadmills for $699.99, or an $800 discount, and a 36% savings on a Whirlpool washing machine, regularly priced at $549.99.

Like many stores, Kmart has switched to a voucher system for especially big-ticket sale items, such as televisions. Store manager Carol Thompson knows that if she only has five big-screen televisions to sell at a steep discount, the first five people who want to buy them in line are assured of getting them, and no one else has to rush to snag one.

Thompson said her staff was holding a series of shared Thanksgiving dinners behind the scenes, and many employees were working shortened shifts so they could head home early to be with families.

Kmart has been opening at 6 a.m. on the holiday for 23 years. Spokeswoman Jamie Stein said people line up as early as 3 a.m. with lines that grow to more than 100 people in some cases. But RadioShack, one of the brands struggling most in the retail industry today, opened on Thanksgiving for the first time this year, and beat most retailers' openings by at least nine hours. The decision was a result of evolving shopping trends, the company said.

"Given the customer demand for store hours on Thanksgiving last year, we made the decision to open on Thanksgiving," RadioShack spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said in a company statement earlier this month. "It gives us the opportunity to stay competitive."

Contributing: Claire Galofaro, the Louisville Courier-Journal; Brad Harper, the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser; Ken Valenti, The Journal News; Mark Barrett, Asheville Citizen-Times; Rick Neale; Florida Today, The Associated Press.

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