Business & Tech

PHOTOS: Black Friday Shoppers Gobble Up Deals on Thanksgiving Night

As some stores opened early, shoppers flocked to them for holiday deals.

Hundreds of Black Friday shoppers got started late Thanksgiving night as stores across Riverhead opened early for the annual shopping spree for big holiday deals.

At Tanger Outlets, shoppers lined up before 10 p.m. for a chance to win one of the night's many giveaways. By midnight police were rerouting shoppers into overflow parking at the Riverhead Raceway.

Many of the shoppers at Tanger said they were glad the stores were opening early, since it meant they could go to bed earlier after grabbing the best deals.

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Unlike other stores, the Riverhead Walmart didn't hold shoppers on line outside the store. Instead, customers were allowed into the store, but had to line up in the different departments within Walmart and wait until 10 p.m. when the different deals were unwrapped from cellophane by store employees. Walmart employees said they let shoppers in early to avoid the stampede of customers that lead to the death of a Walmart employee two years ago when customers broke through a Valley Stream storefront and trampled the man to death.

Best Buy had the biggest line in town, with about 200 people lined up. Shoppers sat in folding chairs and blankets to keep warm as the line stretched around the store and into the loading area behind the store.

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17-year-old Dylan Gibaldi, of Mattituck, said he and his two friends had been camping out since 4:45 on Thanksgiving to try to snag a $200 high-definition television. Gibaldi said it was the first time they'd gone Black Friday shopping.

"It just seemed like it'd be a good experience," he said while sitting in a folded chair draped in a blanket. "It's pretty cold though."

At Target, one shopper from Medford said she came out to Riverhead because the lines would be smaller.

"I figured it'd be quieter out here," the shopper said.


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