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With a blog recapping the early Black Friday action.

Retailers have spent weeks planning for today — and customers followed suit, waiting for hours outside the stores, where they expect to get the best deals on the items atop their holiday wish lists.

Black Friday is here, and the holiday shopping season has officials kicked into high gear.

As usual, Walmart is expected to draw the largest amount of customers due to its aggressive sales and large customer base. This year the retail giant is offering a  32-inch Emerson HDTV for $246 and a 46-inch Sony Bravia  LCD HDTV for $798. Its Black Friday bargains also feature a $78 Magnavox Blu-ray Disc and a Nintendo DS Lite for $78.

But following the “stampeding” death of a guard last year on Black Friday at a Walmart in New York, Walmart has changed its approach to its in-store sales and is allowing residents to line up inside their stores at the department where there items are on sale.

Meanwhile, other popular Black Friday destinations such as Best Buy and Target are still expecting the usual crowd of campers waiting in line outside their stores in hopes of taking advantage of the Black Friday sales — both of which started at 5 a.m.

Among the items Best Buys is featuring today is a HP laptop win an Intel Celeron Processor for $197, while one of the items that Target is show casing for its two-day sales event is a 32-inch Westinghouse LCD HDTV for just $26.

Area retailers are hoping to bounce back from what was a down year for many in 2008, where some estimates showed sales dropped by as much as four percent due to the economic climate.

According to the National Retail Federation an estimated 134 million people expect to shop this Black Friday, which is up from the 128 million that planned to do so last year.

Check back throughout the day to read Rob Spahr's blog.

Contact Robert Spahr:

609-272-7283

RSpahr@pressofac.com

More Coverage

• Game is on in retail big leagues
• Shoppers, retailers play 'game of chicken' during holiday season in recession
• Smaller local stores try to keep buyers away from big-chain discounters

5 comments:

• beachone (79) posts 10:13 am

  Where do poeple get the money? Well lets look at the housing crisis it is called cheap credit and people using plastic. There is no real hard cash exchanges today. Look at the larger department stores their discounts depend upon you using their credit cards. Two of the worst credit cards anyone will have on their person is department stores and gas companies. b1

• snbdr63 (15) posts 8:27 am

  It seems the shopping centers are always crowded every time I go there. Looks like most of the population does not work in Atlantic county, traffic on the roads are always crowded during working hours. Where do these people get the cash to spend lol

• Advocate (89) posts 7:04 am

  I was up early but it was not for shopping..when driving to pick up a friend at their job..I noticed plenty of cars on the road and at shopping centers, a great deal of cars in the parking lots..Christmas to me is less material things..it's more spiritual and about people and being with them..shopping..yes, I will get a few things for this Christmas, again, it about being with the ones I love!!

• beachone (79) posts 5:46 am

  Ask any of these people if they are buying gifts for Christmas and I will bet you that not one would answer yes. Black Friday is not for the holidays but to purchase items that in all due respect people dont need. How many people actually buy clothes for people at Christmas? or shoes or that 40" flat panel tv. Lets look forward another month when the local press and television news will run stories about the debt people ran up for the holidays and how they feel bad. With credit card debt and defaults at an all time high and foreclosers still plaguing the country I fell no pain when I read about how bad some poeple have it, they deserve what they get. b1

• tightill (1) posts 12:19 am

  You can get these same deals and even bigger discounts by shopping online with coupon sites. My favorite is http://GoPromoCodes.com. They have an extra $5 off at Target, Kmart and Sears, $50 off at AT&T and countless other deals.

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