Shoppers rise early for Black Friday deals

By Valerie Hurst, KATU News and KATU.com Staff Published: Nov 27, 2009 at 8:25 AM PST Last Updated: Nov 27, 2009 at 5:23 PM PST
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PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s probably the only day of the year you can get caught in a traffic jam at 3 a.m. on a non-work day – and it’s not because of a car accident.

It’s the hordes of shoppers crowding into malls and outlet store complexes looking for those doorbuster deals on holiday gifts. It’s called Black Friday.

The name isn’t due to some doom-themed ritual, it comes from the retail sector’s notion that the wave of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving (always a Friday) will put companies “into the black” on their yearly balance sheets.

In the Portland area, some stores opened at midnight. Others waited until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Long lines of cars snaked around the streets near malls and outlet stores across the region Friday morning.

There were great deals to be had on some consumer favorites. Top of the list this year: flat screen TVs (a perennial favorite) and the high-zoot DVD players known as “Blu-ray players” that can deliver the High-Definition content that makes those flat screen TVs so popular.

Best Buy and Wal-Mart were duking it in the TV category, selling large flat-screen HD TVs for about $600, a price unheard of last year. Locally, Fred Meyer was quickly selling a Blu-Ray player for $79.99, discounted from a retail price of $179.99.

Also on the hot list: GPS navigation devices, robotic hamsters, and Apple’s red-hot iPod line of media players, which had a rare discount Friday both online and at some stores.

And also at Fred Meyers, the annual sock sale was drawing its usual crowd of devotees, who were busy sorting through tables piled high with warm, soft footwear.

Retailers were smiling at prospects that Black Friday crowds were going to be larger than ever this year as consumers look to make the most of their scarce Great Recession spending dollars.

Overall, holiday retail sales are expected to be down about 1 percent this year from 2008. Local retailers are hoping for a strong showing after a huge snowstorm just before Christmas last year put a big dent in sales.