'Black Friday' frenzy in Yakima

A few days ago, Steven Mayo flew from San Diego to Yakima to spend Thanksgiving with his family.

But instead of spending Thursday eating turkey and watching football games, he went to Best Buy in Union Gap at 7 a.m. to get the first spot in line with his younger brother, John, and his mother, Sally.

Bundled in jackets, they set up a tent and spent the day roasting marshmallows and hot dogs on a propane heater. They made a few friends, too, with some of the 80 to 100 people waiting in line during the wee hours of Friday morning.

Mayo, a 29-year-old Marine rifle trainer based in Carlsbad, Calif., isn't much of a bargain shopper. But he appreciated time with his family, though it wasn't how he normally spends Thanksgiving.

"My friends keep making fun of me," he said. " 'You flew 1,700 miles to hang out in a parking lot of a Best Buy?' Yup, that's what I did."

The tradeoff for that sit-down turkey dinner: a Toshiba laptop for $379.99.

The day after Thanksgiving is known to many as "Black Friday," a name that pays homage to the claim that many retailers go "into the black" with higher sales on that day and the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

But with unemployment rising, banks failing and consumers jittery about the economy, retail analysts are expecting the nation's worst Christmas shopping season since 1991. Uncertain about the turnout Friday, many retailers have been offering special promotions and sales for weeks, in hopes of luring choosy shoppers.

The National Retail Federation expected that up to 128 million people would go shopping Friday, today or Sunday -- down from the 135 million people who said last year they would or might shop over Black Friday weekend.

The economy was certainly on local shoppers minds Friday morning. While there were plenty of vacant spots in the Valley Mall parking lots, drivers had to wait for a spot at Wal-Mart, a indicator that people were looking for bargains.

And while plenty came out to join the frenzy of early-morning sales, they zeroed in on the big-ticket items, such as computers and high-definition televisions -- Wal-Mart, for example, offered a 32-inch television for $388 -- and left several other items behind. Prominent displays of DVDs and video games at Best Buy were still intact by midmorning.

At Best Buy, Darvin Rice, a 40-year-old Sunnyside resident, started to fill out an application for a store credit card while waiting in line to buy a laptop, a home theater system, a Bluetooth headset and Guitar Hero, but decided to stick with paying with cash.

"I just don't want to have debt," said Rice, who works for Darigold. "There's too much stuff going on with the economy."

At Wal-Mart, Tina Warner, a 45-year-old West Valley resident, said she was choosier about the toys she got Friday morning at Wal-Mart

"We weren't going for the stuff that was going to break," she said. "We went for the things that will last."

Best Buy general manager Monte Neumeyer said the line, though it ran long, was smaller than in years' past. But Neumeyer hoped to see more shoppers later; unlike previous years, Best Buy didn't limit Black Friday sales to the early morning hours.

Although most of early specials, such as the $379.99 Toshiba laptop, were gone, the electronics store had plenty of sales planned for the rest of the day and for the weekend.

Black Friday is a key opportunity to draw shoppers, many of whom get the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday. And given the weak economy this year, retailers have been trying to find new ways to entice cost-conscious consumers.

K-Mart, for example, introduced "Early Black Friday" specials earlier this month. And the retailer was open on Thanksgiving to get a jump on store traffic. Macy's had a Thanksgiving sale this week while Wal-Mart advertised online specials on its Web site on Thanksgiving Day.

Some consumers probably chose to stay home Friday in hopes of getting even more deals as the Christmas holiday draws closer, said David Sprott, a marketing professor at Washington State University.

"And if that logic holds, will people hold out to January, knowing that retailers might really be hurting (for higher sales)?" he said.

Die-hard bargain shoppers, however, didn't wait.

Just before 3 a.m. Friday, with temperatures hovering in the mid-20s and a long line ahead of them, Best Buy employees came out with 81/2- by 11-inch pieces of paper. They were tickets for the most desired products -- computers, video games, televisions and other small electronics. With a ticket in hand, the shoppers were guaranteed to get their wish list product.

"Garmin GPS? Kodak camera?" a Best Buy clerk asked while walking down the line.

Much of the attention came when a clerk wandered by with tickets for another version of the bargain Toshiba laptop. For just under $480, shoppers could get the same laptop with four gigabytes of extra memory, anti-virus software and a 250-gigabyte hard drive.

Armando "Mando" Madrigal, 17, of Grandview got the last ticket for the bargain laptop. Madrigal drove up to Best Buy at 8 p.m. Thursday, thinking he'd be one of the first in line.

He was surprised to see several people already there. And clearly they all wanted a laptop.

"I guess I got lucky today," he said. "This is my awesome deal."

The shoppers behind him grumbled, realizing their wait might have been for naught.

The Mayo family, which waited in line nearly 24 hours at Best Buy, spent about an hour in the store buying Wii games, DVDs and, of course, the Toshiba laptop.

No sleep or rest came when they were done. John Mayo headed straight to work; he's a field technician for Prince Telecom. Sally Mayo went back to the family home in Yakima to help her husband take care of their grandchildren. And Steven Mayo finally got to spend some time with his nieces.

But the long wait was worth it, Sally Mayo said. With the exception of some stocking stuffers, the family's holiday shopping basically ended a little after 6 a.m. after cherry-picking the store and getting through the long cashier lines.

"We got what we all came for," she said. "If finances support it, we'll be here next year."

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 577-7685 or mhoang@yakimaherald.com.

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