Black Friday: The 'hunting season' begins with bargains, madness

Jennifer Yarbro and her family were ready when Black Friday came around this year.

The family spent much the previous day, Thanksgiving, preparing for their multipronged attack on Cape Girardeau's stores. Yarbro's assignment, along with her 13-year-old cousin-in-law Rebecca Quick, was to infiltrate Kohl's in the department store's first Black Friday in Cape Girardeau.

Yarbro arrived at 4:15 a.m. for the store's 5 a.m. opening, one of a line at the store that numbered around 200 at opening time. Yarbro was one of the first in line, bundled up in a puffy white coat with a hood, eyes on the prize not 20 feet away -- a pallet of DVD players.

She was never a Black Friday shopper until 6 years ago, when she starting hanging out with the Yarbro family that she would marry into. Now she's addicted.

"You save money and it's really fun," Yarbro said as movement began in the store, with employees manning their stations. "I think it's like the woman version of hunting."

Leland Elfrink of Jackson would have rather been hunting. He waited outside Kohl's in subfreezing temperatures with his wife, Amy, wearing the camouflage hat and jacket of a hunting enthusiast. Before Black Friday, the Elfrinks struck a bargain -- since Leland spent so much time deer hunting this year, he had to go bargain hunting with Amy.

"It's really worked against me this year," Leland said of his love of hunting.

Scenes like the one at the Cape Girardeau Kohl's were going on throughout the day and throughout the country on Friday.

This year consumers are looking for hot deals on toys like Barbie and Bratz and hot technology items like video games and MP3 players. The National Retail Federation predicts that holiday sales will increase 6 percent.

In total 19.9 percent of retail sales for the year occur during the holiday season, said the NRF. Many of those sales happen on one day, Black Friday, so named because it's the day when retailers traditionally go "in the black" for the year.

This year many stores opened an hour early to maximize sales on what has become the biggest shopping day of the year. Wal-Mart got an hour jump on last year, cutting the tape on its Black Friday sales at 5 a.m. instead of 6 a.m.

Tim Bryant, store manager at the Cape Girardeau Wal-Mart, said early Friday that sales were on track to be "way ahead of last year." The extra hour contributed to the extra sales, but so did prices like $378 for a notebook computer (they went within 10 minutes).

Customers were lined up inside as early as 2:30 a.m., said Bryant, to be first in line for those deals.

Technology was also a hot item at Best Buy, where the parking lot filled up by 4:30 a.m. for a 5 a.m. opening, also an hour earlier than last year.

By 6:30 a.m., serpentine lines of customers still waited for check-out at the store, with more people coming in every minute.

JC Penney opened its doors 30 minutes early Friday morning, after giving consumers a sneak peak at holiday deals during a Wednesday pre-sale.

Last year the store experienced record sales on Black Friday, said manager Gary McDowell. This year was on track to keep up with those numbers, with customers rushing after leather coats, housewares and shoes.

McDowell was especially happy with sales considering that three new major competitors have moved in since last year -- Sears Grand, Kohl's and Steve and Barry's.

The NRF reported Friday that sales were on track to beat last year's for Black Friday, partially due to early and increased promotion.

The merchants were happy with sales, and the customers were happy with the deals.

Laura Stoverink of Jackson, her mother Nancy Smith and her sister-in-law Tracy Smith of Mountain View, Mo., joined the line outside Famous-Barr before that store's 6 a.m. opening.

They had already been to Wal-Mart, but were at Famous to get an MP3 player for $19. For these shoppers Black Friday isn't just about the deals, though.

"One year I went and nothing I bought was on sale," said Stoverink.

Next to them in line were mother and daughter Nancy and Molly Morris of Jackson. For the Morris women, Black Friday shopping is a way to bond, to just hang out and talk. But they love the thrill of the hunt.

Nancy said she'll do three-quarters of her Christmas shopping Friday.

"It's an adrenaline rush," Nancy says as she waits in the cold. That adrenaline is what keeps her warm, she says.

For at least one Black Friday shopper, the cold and the early hours were too much. Joseph Easley, a 15-year-old from Chaffee, was one of the first in line at Kohl's with his mother Robin. If he has his way, this year will be Joseph's first, and last, Black Friday.

"I'll never do this again," he said between shivers.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182