While many stores offered special buys to shoppers on Thanksgiving night, shoppers were still heading to stores Friday morning hoping to find that special “Black Friday” deal.
For many shoppers, such as Linda Birchfield and her daughter Lorie Birchfield, hitting the stores the day after Thanksgiving is part of a family tradition.
“It’s our thing,” Linda Birchfield said. “We do this every year.”
Even though many sales started Thursday night, the mother-daughter team said they waited until Friday morning to head out.
“We don’t do it on Thanksgiving,” Linda Birchfield said, adding she and her daughter did not want to take time away from their family gathering to go bargain hunting.
But the pair started early Friday morning on their annual trip.
“We left at 4 a.m.,” Lorie Birchfield said.
The pair went to several stores in the Tri-Cities looking for the best buys for their holiday shopping.
Angie Sifford and her son Chase Sifford also braved the cold Friday morning, but Angie said her son is the real Black Friday shopper.
“I did most of mine online last night,” she said. “There is no way I would have been out here last night.”
The two came out Friday morning “just to see what left over from last night,” Angie Sifford said. Many of the stores have the same deals Friday morning that they had Thursday night, she said.
Despite the deals stores offer on Black Friday, Angie Sifford said she preferred her online shopping experience to the crowded aisle of the stores.
“You don’t have to fight the crowds and everything come straight to your house,” she said.
For some shoppers, the big-ticket discounts were not the draw for Black Friday.
“I got a couple of the flannel shirts and some kids’ pajamas,” Judy Gosnell said. “Just a few Christmas presents.”
Shopping for presents isn’t the only tradition some families take part in on the day after Thanksgiving.
Friday morning, James Boot was at Christmas Greenery on West Elk Avenue buying his family Christmas tree.
“We typically buy our tree the day after Thanksgiving,” he said.
Pat Sagen, who operates the tree lot, said he had a few customers early Friday but he thought the cold weather might have kept some people home.