Shoppers line up for Black Friday

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - Eager shoppers lined up looking to be the first to have the holiday's best deals for Black Friday in Hampton Roads.

Dicky Van Syckle said he hit several stores Friday. "I'm spending on kids, family, everybody - myself bought myself something."

It turns out a lot of personal purchases were at the top of the list this year.

WAVY.com asked Dottie Moore at MacArthur Center, "Did you get anything for yourself?" She answered shyly, "Yes. I bought me six pair of jeans."

Then we took a closer look in her bag. "Oh yeah," Moore recalled. "H&M. I bought another pair of pants. So yeah, I bought seven pair of pants for myself - ok."

It is OK with retailers who count on the shopping season from Thanksgiving through the end of December to make sure they finish the year in the black.

Greenbrier Target Manager Thom Moceri told WAVY.com "I mean we do most of our sales in the next month for our total store, our total business. It's huge. But we're in great shape. Target's doing well and our store is ahead on what we've been doing versus last year."

Most of the shoppers WAVY.com spoke with said they hit stores on the day after Thanksgiving because it kick starts their holiday spirit.

Polly Rollinson said the two hour trip from the Outer Banks, NC to Chesapeake was worth the drive since, "It just puts me in the holiday mood. And we have all the excitement."
 

The very popular Premium Outlets in Williamsburg had thousands of shoppers flocking to its doors starting at midnight Friday. One woman we met drove in from Alabama.

Premium Outlets Assistant General Manager Kathie Strauss told WAVY.com they organized to have a fleet of buses shuttle people from satellite parking lots to the main outlets.

Police and Sheriff departments from around the area assisted in coordinating traffic patterns and keeping shoppers safe.

"I wanted to beat the competition," said Chesapeake's Alex Tejero who was camping out at the Chesapeake Best Buy Friday night.

"All day, I've been sitting out there doing nothing, just talking and playing a couple games here and there," said Tejero.

It was not only Tejero's first time camping out overnight for Black Friday, but he was also the first in line at Best Buy. He was there at 8:00 Thursday morning.

"Yeah, I thought it was going to be a little bit more crazy, but I just took it over board a little bit," Tejero said.

Across the parking lot from Best Buy, shoppers were already grabbing the deals at Old Navy. It was one of the few stores open Thursday night.

"I already ate Thanksgiving dinner," said Cara Bowen. "It's usually a tradition to go to K-Mart, but this year Old Navy is having a Gooblepalooza."

The Manjikyan family says they got an extra bonus, because of the lack of crowds.

"It was nice not having to wait in line for a dressing room and fight all the crowds," Mary Manjikyan added

Stores such as Toys "R" Us in Norfolk kicked off Black Friday by opening Thursday night.