Finished with Thanksgiving dinner, early Black Friday shoppers hit area stores

There are a lot of, “There are two kinds of people,” categories out there, but there also are those who avoid Black Friday like the plague, and there are those who live for the hunt.

Bryan Cumpston is one of those shoppers who thrives on Black Friday deals. Cumpston has spent the last five Thanksgivings camped out on the front door of Target on 14th Street West and has only seen a turkey dinner twice in the last seven years.

That’s commitment.

On Thursday, Cumpston arrived at 7:30 a.m, but had to leave. He came back at 11 a.m. and still had the first spot in line with doors opening at 5 p.m.

It’s a simple enough strategy for him: to do what’s necessary to get what he wants.

“Target has the best prices when it comes to big ticket items,” Cumpston said. “Especially their TVs, which is what I typically come for every year. I always come early, but there was one year I just missed out on the deal.”

The next year, Cumpston set up a sleeping bag and slept at the door overnight.

Forty-seven percent of Americans now say they prefer the casual atmosphere of home, in front of the computer to shop online in order to avoid the Black Friday mayhem. For Black Friday shoppers, that just means there is less competition in the stores, and they are just fine with that.

Black Friday shoppers are strategic, unique and enthusiastic. They have many reasons to participate.

Heather Luedike was on a single-focused mission as she earned the front of the line at Coach at the Ellenton Premium Outlet mall. She was there for the deals, plain and simple.

“I couldn’t resist the 70 percent off,” she said. “Then you can get up to 20 percent off of that. It’s such a great deal.”

She committed to arriving two hours before stores opened at the mall, and it paid off for her. Luedike said this is only the second time in her life she’s done Black Friday shopping.

“I did once before and it was chaos,” she said. “It ruined the experience.”

Holly Moher arrived at the Manatee Avenue Bealls at 3:30 p.m., a full 90 minutes before the doors were to open. It earned her first in line and she sat down to get comfortable while waiting. Bealls is where she starts Black Friday every year and she, too, has a different reason.

“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s the start of Christmas and I think shopping on Thanksgiving has become a tradition for a lot of families, because you see children here and parents of older children hanging out together.”

Moher was flying solo on Thursday at Bealls, but that was the strategy.

“I sent my husband one way and my son another way,” she said.

Moher said she wasn’t seeking out anything particular. She just enjoys the experience and it’s the same for Cumpston. Though he definitely has a plan to get what he wants, it’s so much more.

“I like coming out and talking with all the people,” he said. “You never know who you meet and it’s a lot of fun. It’s not like anyone ever stays in touch, but yeah, you kind of become friends in the moment and then go your own way. And it’s about the thrill of it. It’s like a big treasure hunt.”

The mall stores remained open until 2 a.m. and will go right back at it Friday morning for 6 a.m. doorbusters that will last until 10 a.m. Bealls, too, will reopen at 6 a.m. Stores like Best Buy, Big Lots, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kmart and many others participated in the Thanksgiving sales, as well as Walmart which kicked off at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Ellenton Premium Outlets mall was to be open until 2 a.m. and will resume Friday at 6 a.m. until 10 p.m.

If you missed the Black Friday madness, there’s always Small Business Saturday, which keeps local dollars in local communities. If you are looking for something else, there’s always Cyber Monday, but if you include yourself in the almost one half of the population who prefers your bargain hunting to be digital, you probably already knew that.

Black Friday deals have been raging for the past three weeks online, but savvy Internet shoppers know when to act almost as much as those shoppers who love to hit the ground in search of bargains.

This story was originally published November 22, 2018 at 6:54 PM.