From the evidence piling up in the parking lot of the Port Covington Wal-Mart, flat screen televisions were a hot sale item on the first day of the holiday shopping season.
Collections of TV boxes, apparently too big to fit into most cars, lay in the corners. Their white foam innards, crushed by passing shopping carts and cars, covered the asphalt like an early snowfall.
The South Baltimore store opened its doors at 6 a.m. to a line of shoppers snaked around the building waiting for their chance to snag bargain-priced TVs and other specials. Workers struggled inside to stock aisles with Symphonic 20-inch and 27-inch televisions and outside to clear the parking lot of litter.
"I've definitely bought TVs of the same size before, but boxes must have been smaller," said Nadine Miller, who recruited help to load a $178.88 27-inch TV she had to unbox into the back seat of her Toyota Corolla. "Next year, this is going to be done mail-order, all over the Internet."
Miller and her mother, Nola Krosch, were among the millions around the nation lured by retailers' offers of early-bird discounts and refreshments as merchants sought to ring up holiday sales fast on the day they call Black Friday. Merchants were hoping for a repeat of last year's success when the day after Thanksgiving posted the largest sales of the holiday period for the first time in a decade, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.
"Every retailer knows that if they are going to win the holiday season, they must win this weekend" to keep the momentum going, said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C.
An estimated 130 million Americans are expected to go shopping this holiday weekend, according to the National Retailers Federation. But retailers face a still-challenging economy.
Ready at 3:30 a.m.
The Washington-based trade association estimates that those consumers will help boost sales 4.5 percent to nearly $220 billion over last year's November-December holiday period - less than the 5.1 percent gain of a year earlier. A poll by the Gallup Organization showed shoppers planned to spend about the same this year as they did last, an average of $730.
Carolyn Walstrum and her three grown daughters were outside the Wal-Mart in Aberdeen by 3:30 a.m. yesterday. At the top of their list: a DVD player for $27.87.
By 11 a.m., the three daughters were scouring the packed Toys "R" Us in Bel Air for a SpongeBob action figure as Walstrum waited with a full cart near a checkout line.
"We've been all over," said Walstrum, a veteran day-after-Thanksgiving shopper.
Too much temptation
On the other end of the store was Kathy Kraemer, a self-described rookie who came prepared with two pieces of paper, from daughters Jenna, 4, and Amanda, 11. Each sheet was plastered with magazine cutouts advertising Strawberry Shortcake action figures, My Little Pony dolls and other items.
"I'm 38 years old and I've never done Black Friday," said Kraemer, of Hydes, who had begun her day with a 5:30 a.m. visit to Kohl's. "I don't know what possessed me. I think the mere fact that it was open at 5:30 was too much of a temptation. And I had a coupon."
By 9 a.m. the line at the cashiers' station at the Gap outlet store at Arundel Mills mall in Hanover stretched to more than 50 shoppers - many of them clutching armloads of fleece pullovers marked with tags reading "Buy one, get one free."
3rd year in row
Fifteen-year-old Meraqual Fernandez of Washington and her sister, who waited patiently to pay for gifts for family, said the holiday sales made even the longest lines bearable.
"Oh yeah, we're going to keep waiting," she said. "Everything is on sale."
Lured by markdowns of up to 50 percent, many shoppers said they make an annual tradition out of visits to the mall on Black Friday.
"This is our third year in a row," said Deb Tinsley of Greenbelt, shopping for Christmas gifts with her husband, Bob, their infant daughter and two friends. "I don't think the crowds are that bad, and I don't mind the lines."
Tinsley and her husband visited the mall several weeks ago to make a list of the gifts they planned to buy. Yesterday, they checked off each item after they purchased it.
"We've saved our money to buy the things on our list, and now we're here to finalize things," Tinsley said.
In Carroll County, a trio of Westminster women began their shopping at 4:30 a.m. yesterday. Six hours later, they were flush with the spoils of their meticulous planning the day before.
"We mapped out the good deals," said Robin Becraft, 31, who with her sister Kim Cooper, 34, and friend Stacie Barneo, 25, pored through advertising circulars Thanksgiving Day to figure out where to shop yesterday. The three tackled four venues in six hours, beginning with Kohl's and progressing through Target, Wal-Mart and the TownMall of Westminster.
"It's a thrill," said Becraft, who found loads of toys for her toddler.
