Shoppers brighten at Black Friday deals

NASHUA – After a hectic Thanksgiving, waking up to catch some early Black Friday deals requires a lot of caffeine and a lot of patience.

Consider Lisa Moreau, of Hudson. As she stood in a checkout line at 6:15 Friday morning, she picked up a needle and thread and began working on a quilt panel she had previously started.

“Why not kill two birds with one stone? You’re here waiting, might as well do something.” Moreau said as she passed the needle through the fabric.

Moreau was in line at Kohl’s with her shopping cart full of bedding and pajamas. She arrived around 5 a.m. and said it only took her 25 minutes to find everything she wanted.

The line extended from the front cash registers down the main aisle, past the shoe department and around the next bend. Many of the shoppers were armed with cups of Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbuck’s coffee.

“I went to bed at six last night,” Moreau said. “Everyone thought I was nuts, but look, it’s so worth it,” she added pointing to her cart. She had done some earlier research and discovered Kohl’s had a Black Friday special on king-sized bedding.

“Anywhere else you’ll pay $80 for king-size sheets, they’re $15.99 here. They have the best deals around,” Moreau beamed.

There are plenty of ways to keep yourself entertained as you wait in long lines during the holidays. Lisa Martin of Pepperell, Mass., for example, was engaged in a long-distance shopping contest with her twin sister.

Her twin lives in Minnesota and was shopping at a Kohl’s store there. She and Martin were comparing prices over the phone, and telling each other what to grab if their store was out of an item.

“They have a lot of good deals. I prefer to spend my money here rather than anywhere else,” Martin said.

The good deals at Kohl’s in the Nashua Mall got people so excited that the line was forming by the time store manager Michael Fredieu arrived at 1:45 a.m.

“People were chanting ‘The more you know, the more you Kohl’s’ in line this morning. There were definitely some die-hard Kohl’s fans out there,” Fredieu said.

More than 500 people lined up to get into Kohl’s Friday morning for some big-ticket items like GPS units, cameras and other small electronics.

“The customers are definitely out shopping today, their carts are full and they’re all smiling,” said Mickey Cockrell, district manager.

Though many people may spend their Black Friday shopping from home in the comfort of their pajamas, customers like Martin and David Dykeman, of Worcester, Mass., prefer to do their holiday shopping in store.

Martin likes to have the paper circular in her hands and shop for deals, while Dykeman likes to physically “see what he’s buying.”

This year, the popular use of “online only” or “in-store and online” in circulars and online advertisements caught many shoppers off guard, including those who lined up for hours only to be told that what was printed in the circular was a mistake.

So was the case at Walmart Friday morning, where shoppers Jessica LeMay, 27, of Lowell, Mass., and her friend Amanda D’Hondt, 27, of Dracut, Mass., took their place in line at midnight.

The two friends stood in one of the many different lines until 3 a.m. Friday morning when store employees told them that they could only buy one big-ticket item and that if they were already in one line they couldn’t move to another.

Walmart instituted new security measures in reaction to a tragedy last year, when an employee was trampled to death at a New York store during Black Friday.

“There’s a time to be safe and a time where you go overboard,” D’Hont reflected. “If you got there, waited in line and then are told you can’t get what you want because you’re in the wrong line or because something was misprinted, that’s wrong.”

D’Hont was hoping to cash in on the great laptop and flat-screen TV deals Walmart had advertised as an “all day sale” but was told that the store wouldn’t honor it because it was misprinted in their flyer.

Their patience was wearing thin when they saw a woman reaching for a Barbie doll get verbally attacked by a store employee.

“She snapped at her and told her that she couldn’t touch the Barbie yet because it didn’t go on sale until 5 a.m.” said LeMay.

“The woman just wanted to look at the box and was told she couldn’t even touch it. That’s when we’d had enough.”

They headed down the street to Target, where they loaded up their carts with four flat-screen TVs and other electronics D’Hont was looking to buy.

“We’ve had so much luck here, it’s been effortless,” LeMay said as she rested on the shopping cart full to the brim with gifts and stocking stuffers for her daughter.

The pair guessed that they would probably spend about $2,600. They admitted that they probably shouldn’t be spending as much, but couldn’t resist the attractive deals.

Also along Route 101A, Consumer Electronics Warehouse on Amherst Street held its first Black Friday sale, featuring a Magellan GPS Roadmate for $39.99, Dell surround sound system for $49 and a 20 GB Dell MP3 player for $39.99.

The 8,000 square foot, family-run store sells material bought from retailers that are going out of business or changing inventory. Owner David, who declined to give his last name, claimed his prices are between 25 percent and 75 percent off those at national chains

“We cater to the 95 percent of people looking for electronics but don’t want to pay the full price,” he said.

David said there was a line out the door when the store opened, with the majority of customers looking for the GPS system.

“We made sure that we had enough so everyone could have one,” David said.

Carl Morin strolled through the doors Friday morning at about 8 a.m. and went straight to the counter to ask where the GPS for $39 was.

“I’ve never shopped here before, but looking at these prices, I’ll be back,” Morin said.

The store sold about 70 GPS units during the morning rush, the owner said.

One customer, Charles Howard, was also comparing prices on items like laptops and televisions.

“Depending on what you’re looking for they have some very good bargains,” Howard said adding, “They also have unusual items. Geek stuff for people like me.”

Julianne Hanckel can be reached at 594-5833 or jhanckel@nashua telegraph.com.