Community Corner
Black Friday Starts Early as Big Box Stores Bustle with Door Busters
Parisian, Target, Best Buy and some other 'sleepers' draw huge lines with holiday shopping deals.
Confirmation of things lost on Black Friday: savings, children, car keys and perhaps a little dignity.
The deals and door busters are just too enticing for most shoppers, so the big box stores were rocking at an unprecedented number of midnight openings this year.
, and had the hottest deals tonight on Black Friday in Rochester Hills, and thousands of shoppers took notice.
Find out what's happening in Rochester-Rochester Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"In all my years of retail I've never seen it like this in my life. I truly was not expecting the volume of customers that were at our door today," Parisian Store manager Lara Smolinski said.
"I'm thankful for it. It tells me the economy is booming."
Find out what's happening in Rochester-Rochester Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Some pushing and jabbering happened inside and outside of Parisian for cold shoppers waiting to buy what just couldn't wait until the morning.
Pregame:
10:45 p.m.: Lines with 250+ people stretch out in front of Best Buy and Target.
11 p.m.: Fliers guaranteeing items are handed out in the line outside of Best Buy.
11:15 p.m.: A Best Buy associate announced the 42-inch TV was sold out to the line, received by a number of "Well, there goes three hours of my life" and "At least we get to go warm up!"
11:25 p.m.: Old Navy runs out of tickets for a free camera with a $40 or more purchase.
11:30 p.m.: Parisian prepares for the midnight rush for Emu boots and 499+ other "door buster" deals.
11:55 p.m.: A less-than-thankful verbal exchange occurs as a second line starts to form on the other side of Parisian regarding who was there first.
12:01 a.m.: The Emu boot display at Parisian, purposefully placed by the door, is mobbed by shoppers looking to pay $40 for a regularly priced $100 pair of the trendy boots.
Why were these boots the doorbuster of all doorbusters? Comfort, warmth and style were the most popular descriptive terms.
"I was expecting people getting trampled; there was definitely some pushing," Parisian shoe sales associate Nikki Azzaretti said.
Sleeper awards:
matched Target and Best Buy's low price on Playstation 3. What's the kicker? It wasn't listed in the advertisments, so only people in the know were able to cash in on the great deal with not even a fraction of the line.
handed out tickets for a free camera with a purchase of $40 or more. Other notable items: winter coats, gloves and yoga pants.
