Holiday shopping season opens in Cape with long night of buying

By midnight Thursday, Denise Peterson of Sikeston, Mo., had spent 29 hours waiting in line at Best Buy. Since 7 p.m. Wednesday she'd been patiently waiting outside the Cape Girardeau electronics store to buy a 42-inch television for her husband.

"There's no way we could ever pay full price for one," said Peterson, who saved nearly $400 by camping out for the Black Friday special. "It was a stretch to even afford this, but I scrimped and saved."

Peterson postponed Thanksgiving to hold her place in line. She celebrated Saturday instead.

She said the time spent waiting is worth the savings.

"I couldn't afford to pay that much, but I can wait," she said.

Shoppers had a shorter wait to score savings at Black Friday sales this year with several -- including Best Buy, Macy's, Target and Kohl's -- opening at midnight for the first time. Many stores inside West Park Mall also opened at 12 a.m. Toys R Us opened even earlier, at 9 p.m. Thursday, with more than 500 people waiting in line. Some waited more than six hours in hopes of saving hundreds on an Xbox or tablet computer.

"It's kind of crazy that when Best Buy does midnight, Toys R Us does 9 o'clock and where does it end? 'Cause Toys R Us didn't really do Black Friday, they did Black Thursday. I think the earliest you should do it is midnight," Peterson said.

Peterson has shopped Black Friday for several years, scoring deals at Toys R Us' midnight opening last year.

"I've always gone three or four hours ahead. But I just wanted to be first in line this year," she said.

Shopping on Black Friday allows Luther and Carlyn Haynes to buy more gifts for their family, said the couple expecting to save between $600 and $800 on gifts this year.

Luther Haynes was the third person in line at Target arriving at 1 p.m. for the store's midnight opening. Along with gifts for their granddaughter, the couple also purchased a 46-inch TV for $200 less than regular price.

"I only have one granddaughter and I will wait in line as long as it takes to get her what she wants," Carlyn Haynes said. "This is like a rush for us. It's all worth it to see that baby smile at the end of the night."

For some families, shopping together on Black Friday has become a tradition.

Mother and daughter Mary Woods and Lindsey Neel of Farmington, Mo., pushed a cart full of toys together through the Toys R Us parking lot Thursday evening. This was the fourth year in a row they've shopped Black Friday together.

"We know we save money, but we don't keep track of how much. What we save just goes to buy other presents," Neel said.

Retailers hoped the earlier openings, extended hours and deep discounts would lure in shoppers who are otherwise skeptical about the sluggish economy.

Black Friday, which can bring stores out of the red and into the black, kicks off the holiday shopping season, a time when retailers can make 25 to 40 percent of their annual revenue. It's expected that shoppers will spend nearly $500 billion during the holiday shopping season, or about 3 percent more than they did last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

About 34 percent of consumers planned to shop on Black Friday, up from 31 percent last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, and 16 percent had planned to shop on Thanksgiving Day. For the weekend, 152 million people are expected to shop, up from 138 million last year.

Although a shopper in Los Angeles pepper-sprayed her competition for an Xbox and scuffles reportedly broke out elsewhere around the U.S., Cape Girardeau police said the night here went relatively smoothly.

Cape Girardeau Police Department spokesman Darin Hickey said there were no major incidents reported by Black Friday shoppers.

Many police officers who weren't on duty were hired as additional security at stores, including Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us, he said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, MO