Little Consumer Pushback Observed In Midnight Black Friday Openings

Despite published reports of consumer pushback and the effort of a Target employee with a petition of nearly 200,000 names hoping to change the company’s plans for earlier-than-usual Black Friday hours, midnight openings appeared to have drawn even more than the customary hordes of bargain shoppers, or so our sweep of the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack, N.Y., and other metropolitan New York shopping venues found. Seasoned Black Friday shoppers reported having happily lined up all day Thanksgiving Day, some for as long as 31 hours, to have their crack at a handful of doorbuster electronics.

The first seven people in line at the Palisades Center Target store had arrived early Thursday for the store’s midnight opening in hopes of snaring a Westinghouse 46-inch TV for $298, a savings of $250. A line of roughly 300 people had formed by 10:47 p.m. Thanksgiving night, some sitting in portable chairs, including a Bronx woman knitting a scarf, and others wrapped in blankets in the mid-40s chill. A man in his early 20s near the front of the line was primed for the 46-inch Westinghouse after nabbing a 40-inch model last year, he told us. When we asked why he needed another TV a year later, he replied: “Because it’s bigger.” He planned to give his year-old TV to his mother, he said.

When we asked the seven bargain-hunters why they chose Target for the doorbuster deals, a few told us the lines there were much shorter than those at Best Buy a few floors away at the same mall where people began camping out for vouchers on Wednesday. Target employees handed out a map of the store, showing where inside the doorbusters would be located. The store would allow 30 customers in at a time when the clock struck midnight, customers were told, and there would be no tickets or vouchers. Customers weren’t told how many items were available at each price, and one staffer told us “even I don’t know.” The seven had learned about the deals from websites they had scoured for the hot deals, they told us. We asked one mother if she thought at all about shopping online rather than coming out to stores at the end of Thanksgiving night, but she was steadfast in her preference for the in-person experience, she said: “You get it in your hand."

We headed down the escalators to Best Buy, where shoppers could wait indoors, and found a line that stretched nearly the length of the massive mall, a line that was far longer than where it ended up last year when the store opened at 4 a.m. One store employee estimated the line at 2,000 and another at “well more than 1,000.” The line strung past RadioShack, where store employees were getting a prep course at 11:30 p.m. before a 5:30 a.m. Friday opening.

The big draws at Best Buy were a $199 Sharp 42-inch LCD TV, followed closely by a Lenovo laptop for $179. There we found Yvette, a mother of four, at the front of the line with her friend Keisha, a former work buddy who said she let Yvette do the legwork on the Black Friday websites. The two see each other once a year on Black Friday when they get together to nab bargains, they said. Yvette said she had arrived at 5 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving to get vouchers for the Sharp TV and the Lenovo laptop and in between had cooked two 20 pound turkeys for 30 people while alternating shifts at the mall with various family members. Yvette’s plan nearly hit a snag when her 17-year-old daughter had to be home by 11 p.m. the night before to meet New Jersey curfew laws prohibiting 17-year-olds from driving alone until 5 a.m., she said. The family juggled schedules and held on to first place in the line, but that meant one daughter had to miss Thanksgiving entirely, she said: “It’s OK. This is our day."

No Sleep Since Tuesday Night

Yvette hadn’t slept since Tuesday night, she told us. It was her sixth straight year of Black Friday doorbusting, but this year things took on a different tone, she and her daughter told us. Shoppers who had brought sleeping bags were “kicked awake” early Thanksgiving morning by mall security guards and told they couldn’t sleep in the facility due to a potential fire hazard, according to Yvette’s daughter, who said she witnessed the scene. We heard several murmurings of “Occupy the Palisades Mall” from shoppers waiting both at Target and at Best Buy, who were kept in close check by a no-nonsense security force. Last year, chairs for standing customers were prohibited for the first time, the ladies told us. “Next year it will be something else,” the daughter said.

Having been in line for more than 24 hours, the ladies were approached at various times by people who wanted to purchase their spot in line, and approached again later for the vouchers they had received for the doorbuster items. One shopper offered $100 for the voucher for the $200 Sharp TV but Yvette refused, she said, citing her own desire to own the TV and attributing the decision also to principles. “I wouldn’t sell to people who just came in when other people have been here all night,” she said. Besides, she added, “selling tickets isn’t allowed."

Not all patrons stuck to such principles, however. Some patrons were swayed by the offers of cash. For example, we overheard two teenage girls who, after tiring of “waiting so long,” sold their place in line, which, they and their “customer” had calculated, would be close enough to the front to get a voucher. The girls sold their spot for $75 to someone who wanted the 42-inch Sharp. How many of the Sharp TVs were available for $199 wasn’t clear. One Best Buy employee told us there were 17 at that price and another said 10, while Yvette had been told by a Best Buy staffer that there were 20 Sharp TVs and 10 Lenovo laptops at the Black Friday advertised price.

Best Buy store advertisements referred to limited quantities with a 10-unit minimum per store. Jimmy Ensworth, asset protection manager for Best Buy, told us there was plenty of inventory for all advertised products, but just a limited supply of products at doorbuster prices. Regarding the extra hours, Ensworth was “glad the store is going to hit budget” but expressed dismay at the intrusion on his Thanksgiving Day. Opening at midnight “cuts into the holiday,” he said. “People were here at 8 p.m. [Wednesday]. Where did the holiday go?” Ensworth “doesn’t mind Black Friday,” he said, “but I don’t like what it’s become."

Customers’ moods seemed predictably less chipper the further down toward the back of the line we went. Alex, about 60 places behind frontrunner Yvette, was hopeful that everybody in front of him was there for the Sharp TV or the Lenovo and that he'd be able to scoop up an Xbox 360 bundle for $199. He'd been in line since 2 p.m. Thanksgiving Day but was resigned to walking out empty-handed if he didn’t get the bundle at the sale price. “I expect to get $100 off, but I could wait a couple of weeks until I have more money if I have to,” he said.

For those living through the Black Friday frenzy for the first time, the experience proved an unhappy surprise, several told us. A Bronx couple in their 20s arrived at 10 a.m. Thursday to get a shot at the Lenovo laptop and the Sharp TV, they said. Well back from the front of the line, they learned through the grapevine that there were only limited quantities of products available at those prices and they resigned themselves to purchasing something else, they said. “I'm pissed, but what can you do?” said the husband, who said he was now eyeing a $40 Blu-ray deal.

Ruben and Naomi had driven 45 minutes from the Bronx to get in line Thanksgiving afternoon, they told us. Ruben had resigned himself to not getting a reasonable crack at the $179 Lenovo, but was hopeful to get another good deal on “whatever’s left,” he said. The couple had budgeted $500 for Best Buy shopping, they said. “If we get a laptop for less than $500, we'll spend the rest on something else,” Ruben said. Now that the couple understands how the first-come-first-served process works, “we'll come earlier next year,” Naomi said.

Two-thirds of the way toward the back of the line, 19-year-old Dennis was participating in his first Black Friday event, he said. “I didn’t expect this,” he said of the hordes of shoppers in front of him. Dennis was in the market for movies and a Blu-ray player and was ready to “take whatever I can get,” he said. The line had just started moving at the midnight opening, and store employees were letting in 50 customers at a time. “I'm prepared to stay all night if I have to,” Dennis said.

Just after midnight we positioned ourselves outside a large window at a closed Target entrance along with about 30 onlookers, observing the race inside as if we were watching a sporting event. Target employees had placed TVs in carts and customers just had to grab a cart as they streaked into the TV department with maps in hand directing them to specific products. A police officer stood guard as customers laid claim to their TVs. At 12:05 a.m., just minutes after the midnight opening we counted 10 of the Westinghouse 46-inch TVs in customers’ shopping carts and none left on the floor. Philips 40-inch and Samsung 32-inch LCD TVs were next to go, followed by Vizio 37-inch models. A large number of Element TVs appeared, and then disappeared. By 12:17 a.m., only six 22-inch Polaroid TVs were unclaimed and by 12:23 a.m. there were only three. One shopper, who already had a 32-inch Samsung TV in his cart, snatched another of the Polaroid TVs while apparently taking shopping instructions on his cell phone.

By the time the line had evaporated outside and we managed to work our way inside the Target store, at about 12:30 a.m., all the TVs were gone. The store’s “team leader,” Michael Van Riper, said his outlet had 150 TVs in carts as doorbusters and roughly “50 each” per model. The store also added a “surprise TV,” the 40-inch Philips, to fill in for 46-inch Westinghouse models that had sold out quickly, Van Riper said. “People could check in on their smartphones to see what it was,” he said. Although TVs were the hottest item of the night, Van Riper said people are becoming “calmer about TVs.” He doesn’t expect the category to carry the same excitement next year. “We've reached a peak in TVs until there’s new technology,” he said. He expects e-readers and tablets also to be big sellers this holiday season, he said.

Mum on Target Employee’s Petition

Van Riper wouldn’t comment on the petition that sought to have Target repeal its decision to open at midnight. He did say he was “very happy” with the way his employees responded to the earlier hours, their “positive attitude” and how smoothly the opening went. This year the store opened with a presiding police officer, who quickly positioned himself in the TV department. We appreciated the extra security when we hit the sales floor after seeing a customer bend over to pick up a razor blade that had fallen out of his pocket.

Regarding shopper response to the earlier hours, Van Riper told us, “The customers seem happy,” citing the 500 that were waiting when doors opened at midnight, about double the number from last year. As we left Target, we caught up with one of the winners of the 46-inch Westinghouse, who was beaming with her basket of deals. She had arrived at the mall at 8:40 a.m. Thanksgiving morning and vowed she'll be back again next year. “We do it every year,” she said.

The hottest-selling CE and videogame products at retail stores in Manhattan, Long Island and Northern Virginia we and NPD analyst Stephen Baker visited late Thursday night and early Friday were very much the same doorbuster items that were prominently featured in Black Friday ad circulars. Those items included flat-screen TVs, videogame systems, Blu-ray players and notebook computers. “Once you get by those categories … there weren’t huge deals across the board in lots of other product segments,” Baker said.

Traffic at the stores Baker visited was “pretty similar to previous years” on Black Friday, he told us. “We saw a lot of aggressive pricing on” flat-panel TVs 32-42 inches, he said. But there was discounting on 50- to 51-inch plasma TVs and 60-inch and 65-inch models also, he said. Baker visited stores including Walmart, hhgregg, Best Buy, Sears, RadioShack, Staples and Target, he said. Traffic was “pretty much in line with what we've seen in the past” at each retailer, he said.

On Long Island, doorbuster 32- to 46-inch LCD TVs were the most in-demand products at the Best Buy and Target stores in Levittown and the Walmart store in East Meadow that we visited late Thursday night and early Friday. Many of the consumers who were lined up outside the Best Buy store at about 11 p.m. Thursday said they were hoping to buy the $199.99 Sharp 42-inch 1080p LCD TV that the retail chain featured on the front page of its ad circular. Customers hoping to buy the TV included a woman near the front of the line who told us she started waiting outside the store at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday. There were hundreds of people waiting outside the store before it opened and Best Buy employees told those waiting that there was only a limited supply of the model, in keeping with its ad circular’s statement that each store had only a minimum of 10 units.

Nelson Dumeng said he was hoping to buy the Sharp TV from the Levittown Best Buy store. But the 30-year-old tow truck driver from Levittown told us he would “settle for” the $84.99 Garmin nuvi 40LM GPS device that Best Buy featured on the second page of its circular. The price represented savings of $65 and there was a minimum of 12 of those per store, Best Buy said in the ad.

Katherine Lazarus, 20, of Levittown said she was planning to buy a Wii that was advertised at Bestbuy.com for $100 as a Christmas gift at the Levittown Best Buy store for her brother. It was to replace the Wii he had that was broken, she said. But it turned out that the $100 Wii was apparently only being offered at Best Buy’s website, not in its stores, and the deal wasn’t featured in the circular. She opted not to pay the usual $149.99 that Best Buy was charging for the Wii at the store. We didn’t see any Wiis bought at any of the Long Island stores we visited.

We returned to the Levittown Best Buy store shortly after its midnight opening and there was still a long line just to get in. We saw several customers leaving the store with Xbox 360 consoles. Best Buy advertised the 250-GB version of the console as part of a bundle with the Microsoft games Fable III and Halo: Reach at $199.99 -- $100 off its usual price. The chain said it had at least 12 of the bundle per store. Customers were also leaving the store with Samsung 32-inch LCD TVs and Toshiba Blu-ray players. Best Buy featured a Toshiba Smart Blu-ray player at only $39.99 on the front page of its circular, saying that represented savings of $40. The chain said it had a minimum of 20 of those per store.

The most in-demand product at the Levittown Target store when we arrived at 12:40 a.m. Friday was the $298 Westinghouse 46-inch 1080p LCD TV that the chain featured on the front page of its ad circular. The model usually sells for $549.99, it said. One customer bought three of them, and various other customers were leaving the store with the set in their shopping carts. Customers were also leaving the store with the $265 Element 40-inch 1080p LCD TV and $277.99 Samsung 32-inch 720p LCD TV that Target advertised on the second page of its circular.

The $188 32-inch Emerson 720p LCD TV that Walmart featured on the front page of its ad circular and $278 32-inch Samsung 720p LCD TV featured on the second page were the most popular CE products at the East Meadow store that we visited. Also heavily in demand was the $49 LG BD610 Blu-ray player that was on the front page of the circular. Blu-ray movies for only $5, including 300 and The Dark Knight, were also seen being purchased. The parking lot at the store was filled at about 11 p.m. on Thursday night and we couldn’t find a place to park there. The line to get into the store was huge at that time, but it emptied out and parking spaces were available when we returned after 1 a.m. Friday, one hour after the Black Friday electronics deals became available.

Customers, ourselves included, who had set their sights on heavily discounted large-screen 3D TVs were mostly out of luck on Friday. The only 3D TV featured in Walmart’s circular was a $598 Vizio 42-inch, 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV on the back page. Target and Kmart didn’t advertise any 3D TVs in their circulars.

But two 3D TV models each were advertised by Best Buy and Sears. Best Buy featured $1,398.99 46-inch and $1,698.99 55-inch Sony LED-backlit LCD 3D TVs in its circular, each bundled with a home theater system -- not much of an incentive if the customer, like us, already owned a home theater system. The Westbury, N.Y., Best Buy store also didn’t have either model on display. A store salesman said the store had better models at $300 less each, but both of those alternate models were only demonstrated in 2D.

Sears advertised a Samsung 51-inch 1080p plasma 3D model at $649.99 that it said it normally sells for $999.99 and a Sony 55-inch 3D LED-backlit LCD TV at $1,698.99 that it said it normally sells for $1,999.99. Sears said it would only have a minimum of two units of each per store and there would be no rainchecks. The Hicksville, N.Y., store that we visited early Friday morning had the TVs in stock, but didn’t have them on display, so we couldn’t see either model work before buying one. The store only had a similar Sony model up and running, and a store salesman said the advertised model was superior even though the model shown in the store offered 240 Hz and the ad said the advertised model offered only 120 Hz. The store salesman claimed the advertised model actually featured 240 Hz also, and the ad was mistaken, but Sony’s site listed the advertised model at 120 Hz. The advertised Sony model came with a Blu-ray home theater system, while the LG model came with a Blu-ray player.

P.C. Richard & Son advertised discounts on three large-screen 3D TVs for Friday only: two Samsung 55-inch, 1080p 240 Hz LED-backlit Smart LCD TVs, one at $1,798.87 (savings of $1,401 off its regular price, the retailer said) and the other at $2,398.97 (savings of $1,260) and an LG 55-inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-backlit LCD TV at $1,293.84 (savings of $1,296). But the Levittown store offered no 3D demo for either Samsung TV and offered only a 3D demo for the LG TV, not showing what broadcast TV or other source content would look like on the TVs. While the four demo stations for 3D TVs in the center of the TV areas at the Westbury and Levittown Best Buy stores indicated that viewers could “view what’s on ESPN 3D right now,” that capability of the demo stations was broken at both locations.

Shoppers Yearn for ‘Basic Products'

One possible reason for the lack of many aggressive 3D TV promotions on Friday was that “everybody was really concentrated on basic products” at very low pricing, NPD’s Baker said. “There weren’t a ton of smart TVs either” in the promotions, “so I wouldn’t just pick on 3D,” he said.

We were told by salesmen at the Best Buy store in Westbury and P.C. Richard store in Levittown that our existing rear-projection TV could be taken away to be recycled by each company. While the Best Buy salesmen provided no specifics on how the old TV would be recycled, the P.C. Richard salesman said the set would be recycled at his company’s Farmingdale, N.Y., facility. A salesman at the Best Buy store in Levittown mentioned no stipulation to that service when we asked about it two weeks ago. But a salesman at the Westbury Best Buy store said Friday morning that TVs weighing more than 150 pounds -- possibly including our old Mitsubishi rear-projection TV -- would not be taken away for recycling by it. We'd have to contact somebody in local government to do it for us, he said.

We arrived at the Levittown P.C. Richard store about 10 minutes before the advertised 5 a.m. opening on Friday only to find that the location already was open for business. Salespeople easily outnumbered customers at that hour. President Gregg Richard told us last year that his chain’s stores customarily open a few minutes early on Black Friday if customers were waiting to get in.

We were told a slightly different version soon after we arrived at 4 a.m. Friday at the P.C. Richard store on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills, Queens. There, too, we found the store already open for business, but with no customers waiting to get in. Salesman Jewel Zaman said all stores in the chain opened at 4 a.m. Friday and that the 5 a.m. opening posted in the ad circular “must have been a mistake.” By 4:45 a.m., a few customers began streaming in, but again were easily outnumbered by the salespeople on hand.

In its circulars, the chain trumpeted that its Black Friday deals would be available “all day long” until 11 p.m. “We advertise it … We have it … We sell it … You won’t be disappointed.” One of its advertised specials was a 32-inch Coby 720p LCD TV at $198.64, about $100 off the everyday price. We observed several dozen of the Coby TVs stacked on a palette. But one of the bigger steals was an unadvertised special: Sony’s 46-inch KLD-46HX820 LED-backlit 3D LCD TV with 240-Hz refresh rate at $1,298, trumpeted at “half off” the $2,600 list price.

Salesman Zaman told us he had only three available at that price, whereupon the set would revert to $1,798, the price that happened to be in effect at the P.C. Richard online store when we checked it midday Friday. For its 3D functionality, the KLD-46HX820 requires purchase of separate Sony 3D glasses, which Zaman said were available for $29 a pair. When we remarked that the price seemed unusually low for active-shutter 3D glasses from Sony, Zaman checked again and said the only Sony glasses available at the store were through a $149 starter pack that includes two pairs of eyewear and one Blu-ray 3D movie. On Friday, Sony.com was selling the KLD-46HX820 at the same $1,798 price as the P.C. Richard online store and for “a limited time only” was throwing in the $149 starter pack for free.

Electronics “did very well” at the Westbury Target store that we visited on Friday morning, Alan Yamaji, its senior executive team leader of merchandising, said. It was “probably the strongest crowd we've ever had” at the store, with the line “wrapped around the building,” he said. People started lining up outside the store on Thursday afternoon, hours before its midnight opening. Faring especially well were the Xbox 360, the Acer 10.1-inch netbook that Target advertised at $157 in its circular, and flat-panel TVs, he said. It ran out of the netbook, as well as the Element and Westinghouse TVs, but still had many 360 consoles left, he said. Also faring well was the PS3, but “number one” in electronics were TVs, said Bill Hobert, executive team leader of hard lines at the store.

"The hottest seller this year” at the Levittown RadioShack store on Friday morning was the $199.99 Xbox 360 bundle including the 4-GB console and Kinect sensor that chain featured on the front page of its ad circular, Store Manager Jagjit Mehmi told us. The store only had two in stock when it opened at 5:30 a.m. and those “were my first two sales” of the day, he said. The store also sold out of the six units of the $299.99 Toshiba laptop and three units of the $99.99 Velocity Micro Cruz tablet that were featured on the circular’s front page, he said. Customers were also buying the $9.99 HDMI cables it featured in the ad that usually sell for $27.99, he said. The store still had some in stock, “but we're going to sell them out” as the day continued, he predicted. There “was a lot more business” last year on Black Friday, he said. “I understand pockets are tight these days,” he said. By 9 a.m. traffic had “died down” this time, he said.

PS3s and Xbox 360s were among the most popular products at the GameStop stores we visited in East Meadow and Levittown. About 70 people were on line at the Levittown store when we arrived there about 10 minutes before the store opened at midnight. Many PS3s were sold while we were there and a slightly smaller number of 360s. One customer told us he planned to buy the new 3DS bundle including the 3D handheld game system and Nintendo’s game The Legend of Zelda -- Ocarina of Time 3D.

The PS3 also seemed to be the most in-demand game system at the East Meadow GameStop store. About one hour before the store’s midnight opening there were only about 15 customers waiting on line outside the store. Justin Rodriguez, 20, told us he planned to buy the PS3 bundle that GameStop advertised at $299.99 including a 320-GB PS3 and Sony Computer Entertainment’s 3D game Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which the retail chain said offered $60 in savings. “I walked right out of” the Walmart that’s in the same shopping center because the line was too long there, he said. Rodriguez said he heard the PS3 was sold out there in about three minutes. Walmart advertised a 160-GB PS3 at $199.96. It was Rodriguez’s first time buying a PS3, after having to replace his Xbox 360 three times, he said.

Two other customers in line told us they planned to buy a PS3, one saying the line had been too long at Target. A 22-year-old East Meadow resident named John, who declined to give his last name, said he wanted to buy the $199.97 160-GB PS3 that GameStop advertised on the front page of its circular. He was buying the system for his grandmother, who wanted one despite being more than 80 years old. “I want to get her into” interactive games and it was “a good deal” offered by GameStop, he said. The console came bundled with the Sony games LittleBigPlanet 2 Special Edition and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. If bought separately, the console and games would cost $369.97, GameStop said. Several PS3 and 360 games were also in demand at the two GameStop stores, including Madden NFL 12 by Electronic Arts (EA) and WWE ‘12 by THQ, as well as Microsoft’s Kinect sensor.

'Very Strong’ Inventory Position -- GameStop

The PS3 and 360 also were among the strong sellers for GameStop stores in Manhattan, said Kevin Dath, district manager of those locations. But he said several new games were also among the best-selling products, including EA’s Battlefield 3 and Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. There was also “a lot of interest” for Nintendo’s new 3DS bundles, he said. The chain was in a “very strong position” with console inventory, he said, when asked if there were any shortages. There was growth in Kinect motion sensor demand, likely helped by the aggressive pricing and larger catalog of games, he said. Android-based tablets weren’t in GameStop’s ad circular, in part because not all its stores carry them yet, he told us. But he said GameStop quietly offered Black Friday promotions on them, including $100 off its $399.99 Asus model.

Toys “R” Us opened U.S. stores one hour earlier than last year, at 9 p.m. Thursday night and customers lined up outside the stores before they opened, spokesman Bob Friedland said. The top-selling products included iPod touches, Activision’s videogame Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and accompanying accessories, and the Xbox 360, he said. The chain featured the iPods on the front page of its circular at $199.99 for the 8-GB SKU and $299.99 for the 32-GB SKU. That’s in line with Apple’s normal pricing. But Toys “R” Us threw in a $50 store gift card with each device sold. Like several rivals, it advertised the 4-GB 360 at $199.99 including the Kinect controller, but also added a $10 gift card.

Toys “R” Us already offered layaway plans for CE and videogame products, but it recently expanded that service to toys, Friedland said. That service has been “extremely popular this year,” he said.

TVs appeared to be a must-have on Black Friday, shaking off the sluggish sales that plagued the category for much of the year despite cut-rate pricing at retail. Most of the customers we polled at Best Buy and Walmart stores in Connecticut Thursday night said they had had their sights set on the TV doorbuster specials, regardless of the quality of the sets or the quantities available. The 600 or so shoppers lined up outside a Danbury, Conn., Best Buy store in sub-freezing temperatures Thursday night made short work of the 32 Sharp 42-inch LCD TVs that were priced at $199. At Walmart, customers cut through 200 of the 300 Emerson 32-inch 720p sets priced at $188 just 15 minutes after they officially went on sale at midnight.

Best Buy customers also appeared to clamor for private-label Dynex 24-inch and 32-inch LCD TVs, while Walmart quickly sold through the initial 13 Samsung 51-inch 1080p LCD TVs ($498) it made available at midnight. Additional supplies of the 51-inch, along with a 46-inch Samsung -- there were 12 units available at midnight -- went back on sale at Walmart at 8 a.m. Friday, store staffers said. At Walmart, customers picked up claim checks for the 32-, 46- and 51-inch TVs near the home and garden department instead of the CE section, which was swamped with people looking for other goods, including a $39 Toshiba Blu-ray player. The 32-inch sets appeared to be the deal du jour on Black Friday, with Best Buy fielding a Dynex model at $229, while Wal-Mart had Samsung and Sony 720p models at $278. Unlike past years, 3D-equipped sets were less visible in Black Friday specials, although the Costco store in Brookfield, Conn., had a 47-inch LG passive 3D LCD TV with edge-lit LEDs at $899 after a $300 manufacturer mail-in rebate.

"The TVs were where it was at and everybody came in and started grabbing those that were being promoted,” said Tracy Stone, product process supervisor at the Best Buy Danbury store, which draws from a warehouse with about 800 TVs in stock. “On a cheap TV, it’s just a mad dash to get whatever is available.” Best Buy also had one of the more aggressive promotions for an Xbox 360 bundle that included the console with two games and a free three-month X-box Live subscription at $199. Target had the 250 GB Xbox console at $139, but without the games or free subscription.

Best Buy also had a rare price cut on iPad, dropping the 64 GB, 32 GB and 16 GBs models to $784, $684 and $454, respectively, from $829, $729 and $499. “Apple price-protects so they dictate what we can sell their stuff for, so sometimes we can put their products on sales and sometimes not,” Stone said.

Despite the promotions, not all customers were in the market for a TV, shoppers told us. “I have a TV so why do I need several TVs?” said Katja Piergostini of Newtown, Conn., as she headed into a Walmart store. “I'm here for a different reason because I just want to see the deals and check out what is available. I never do this kind of thing so I wanted to check out see what it’s like."

As noted earlier, this year’s earlier openings appeared to take the steam out of retailers like P.C. Richard and RadioShack that declined to match their competitors and move up their Black Friday openings to Thanksgiving night. The P.C. Richard store in Danbury had only 50 customers lined up when it opened early Friday, while a RadioShack location in Ridgefield, Conn., had 10, store staffers at those locations said. The Best Buy location reported steady traffic at checkout through 3 a.m. Friday with waiting times peaking at 90 minutes, store staffers said. They reported a foot-traffic lull between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Friday, followed by another burst at 7 a.m. Lines began forming at Best Buy in Danbury at 11 a.m. Thursday, they said.

"It was pretty chaotic for a while and shoppers were crankier than usual,” probably because of the earlier start times, a security guard at Best Buy said. Best Buy in Danbury had its “fair share of upset customers who were frustrated with the line, but they have to understand there are several hundred people in the building and there’s nothing you can do about it because there are only so many employees,” Stone said.