[h=5]Frank Kummer and Matt Katz, Breaking News Desk[/h]Posted: Friday, November 23, 2012, 6:50 AM
Gather round kids, and hear about Black Fridays of yore, when malls and big box retailers were once populated in the wee hours by lone-wolf parents with dark circles under eyes, desperately clutching circulars and coffee.
As if.Now, youth- and whole families - dominate the annual shopping orgy if an eyeballing of overnight crowds in Cherry Hill, Deptford and Philadelphia were any indication.
Packs of teens, or young adults, hunted gifts with not an adult in sight. Some young women were dressed with makeup and heels, as if it were Saturday night.
At 2:30 a.m., the Best Buy parking lot in South Philadelphia was still nearly filled. Lines began forming 8 o'clock Thanksgiving night. At one point, the line extended to Dollar Tree next door and along the fence to the Philadelphia Parking Authority impound lot.
Ashley Ross was typical of the youth movement.
"I came here to get a TV-and I got a TV," said 22-year-old Ashley Ross, who acknowledged that the TV she really wanted was already sold out by 3 a.m., so she bought a different one.
And she was one of the elder statesmen of Black Friday overnight overnight.
Indeed, at 4 a.m., the Cherry Hill Mall had the air of a Saturday afternoon, with hundreds of youth filling it's cavernous space.
They crowded in stores such as Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch where equally young male models posed shirtless in shorts.
Why? Maybe now Black Friday has become such a marathon that only the young have the stamina with retailers opening stores earlier than ever this year-on Thanksgiving night, instead of midnight or later on Black Friday.
In the past, stores often opened at 5 a.m. to huge lines of crowds. Then, they started to open at midnight, drawing the crowds even earlier, leaving only thin crowds by dawn.
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This year, retailers such as Target and Toys R Us opened for the first time on Thanksgiving eve. The result might have allowed parents and older adults to flock to the earlier times, and left the malls open to a younger crowd.Indeed, crowds at Philadelphia-area stores subsided somewhat during the overnight hours.
Talieha Drake, 20, of Camden was loading her car outside the Cherry Hill Mall at 4:30 a.m. She arrived at 3 a.m. But the mall was still bustling.
"It was just the spirit of things," Drake said as to what motivated her. "This is my first year doing this. I would do it again.
Drake said the deals were that good.
True, parents were still present. But more often than not, they seemed to be traveling with whole families.
Dean and Kim Bedwell, of Blackwood, Camden County, were emblematic. They were there at the Cherry Hill Mall at 4:30 a.m. with Kim's sister, Stacey Powell, of Pennsauken, and their young granddaughter, Isabel.
And they had started at midnight at the Deptford Mall.
"That was a madhouse," said Kim, who said she found her best bargains at Kohl's in Cherry Hill.
Overall, TVs, TVs and more TVs seem to be the hottest items back at the Best Buy in South Philadelphia where customers waited online for tickets to get the TVs-only to wait in another line to pick them up.
Boxes were used to create barriers and coral customers into lines, marked by blue tape, that snaked around the store. A representative from Comcast's Xfinity was working the line, hawking cable service.
That madness seemed to be in keeping with the typical Black Friday tradition of leaving shoppers exasperated.
"I've never done this before and I'll never do it again," declared Andrea Byrne, 30, who purchased a TV. But it wasn't the TV she wanted, so she was waiting on another line after hearing from an employee that some of the tickets for a more coveted TV (a 55-inch Panasonic with a full sound system) were unused-meaning there may be some still in stock.
She was there with her fiancé, Garrett Fardelmann, 31, who allowed that their parents' were paying for the TV (just one) for their wedding on New Year's Eve.
Of Black Friday, Fardelmann said previously "we had avoided it like the plague-but we needed a TV."
Joanna Ideo, 22, is a Black Friday veteran. By 3 a.m, she had already hit the Limerick outlets, the King of Prussia Mall and Best Buy. She does this every year "because everything is cheaper." She wasn't purchasing gifts, though, everything that she bought Thursday into Friday-from the expensive Michael Kors handbag to the $11.99 Keyshia Cole CD- was for herself.
Ideo reported that the King of Prussia Mall's Apple store had the most "ridiculous" lines of the night.
By 4 a.m., the scene at the South Philadelphia Wal-Mart was under control, but one eyewitness, who asked not to be named, reported seeing a fistfight at about 8:30 p.m. the night before near the electronics section. The fight appeared to be over TVs selling for about $200. No one was arrested but people were knocked down, the eyewitness said.
Mary Day, 26, was at Wal-Mart at 4 a.m. to buy gifts and other things for the holidays-and she said she was returning during the day to pick up a TV she had on layaway. She figured a second trip through the super store would yield more goodies. "Hopefully I'll see some other stuff in there I can pick up," she said. "Tomorrow's gonna be reckless."
And by 5 a.m. - now late in Black Friday shopping - the South Philadelphia Toys R Us was nearly empty. Employees were restocking shelves from a rush earlier in the night. The hottest seller, according to an employee: A 7-inch tablet from Coby selling for $70, down from a $150 retail price.
Gather round kids, and hear about Black Fridays of yore, when malls and big box retailers were once populated in the wee hours by lone-wolf parents with dark circles under eyes, desperately clutching circulars and coffee.
As if.Now, youth- and whole families - dominate the annual shopping orgy if an eyeballing of overnight crowds in Cherry Hill, Deptford and Philadelphia were any indication.
Packs of teens, or young adults, hunted gifts with not an adult in sight. Some young women were dressed with makeup and heels, as if it were Saturday night.
At 2:30 a.m., the Best Buy parking lot in South Philadelphia was still nearly filled. Lines began forming 8 o'clock Thanksgiving night. At one point, the line extended to Dollar Tree next door and along the fence to the Philadelphia Parking Authority impound lot.
Ashley Ross was typical of the youth movement.
"I came here to get a TV-and I got a TV," said 22-year-old Ashley Ross, who acknowledged that the TV she really wanted was already sold out by 3 a.m., so she bought a different one.
And she was one of the elder statesmen of Black Friday overnight overnight.
Indeed, at 4 a.m., the Cherry Hill Mall had the air of a Saturday afternoon, with hundreds of youth filling it's cavernous space.
They crowded in stores such as Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch where equally young male models posed shirtless in shorts.
Why? Maybe now Black Friday has become such a marathon that only the young have the stamina with retailers opening stores earlier than ever this year-on Thanksgiving night, instead of midnight or later on Black Friday.
In the past, stores often opened at 5 a.m. to huge lines of crowds. Then, they started to open at midnight, drawing the crowds even earlier, leaving only thin crowds by dawn.
Entertainment Today
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She's 30, he's 20 & embarrassed by her age
Stay Connected
Get the latest news and events delivered to your email. Sign up now!
This year, retailers such as Target and Toys R Us opened for the first time on Thanksgiving eve. The result might have allowed parents and older adults to flock to the earlier times, and left the malls open to a younger crowd.Indeed, crowds at Philadelphia-area stores subsided somewhat during the overnight hours.
Talieha Drake, 20, of Camden was loading her car outside the Cherry Hill Mall at 4:30 a.m. She arrived at 3 a.m. But the mall was still bustling.
"It was just the spirit of things," Drake said as to what motivated her. "This is my first year doing this. I would do it again.
Drake said the deals were that good.
True, parents were still present. But more often than not, they seemed to be traveling with whole families.
Dean and Kim Bedwell, of Blackwood, Camden County, were emblematic. They were there at the Cherry Hill Mall at 4:30 a.m. with Kim's sister, Stacey Powell, of Pennsauken, and their young granddaughter, Isabel.
And they had started at midnight at the Deptford Mall.
"That was a madhouse," said Kim, who said she found her best bargains at Kohl's in Cherry Hill.
Overall, TVs, TVs and more TVs seem to be the hottest items back at the Best Buy in South Philadelphia where customers waited online for tickets to get the TVs-only to wait in another line to pick them up.
Boxes were used to create barriers and coral customers into lines, marked by blue tape, that snaked around the store. A representative from Comcast's Xfinity was working the line, hawking cable service.
That madness seemed to be in keeping with the typical Black Friday tradition of leaving shoppers exasperated.
"I've never done this before and I'll never do it again," declared Andrea Byrne, 30, who purchased a TV. But it wasn't the TV she wanted, so she was waiting on another line after hearing from an employee that some of the tickets for a more coveted TV (a 55-inch Panasonic with a full sound system) were unused-meaning there may be some still in stock.
She was there with her fiancé, Garrett Fardelmann, 31, who allowed that their parents' were paying for the TV (just one) for their wedding on New Year's Eve.
Of Black Friday, Fardelmann said previously "we had avoided it like the plague-but we needed a TV."
Joanna Ideo, 22, is a Black Friday veteran. By 3 a.m, she had already hit the Limerick outlets, the King of Prussia Mall and Best Buy. She does this every year "because everything is cheaper." She wasn't purchasing gifts, though, everything that she bought Thursday into Friday-from the expensive Michael Kors handbag to the $11.99 Keyshia Cole CD- was for herself.
Ideo reported that the King of Prussia Mall's Apple store had the most "ridiculous" lines of the night.
By 4 a.m., the scene at the South Philadelphia Wal-Mart was under control, but one eyewitness, who asked not to be named, reported seeing a fistfight at about 8:30 p.m. the night before near the electronics section. The fight appeared to be over TVs selling for about $200. No one was arrested but people were knocked down, the eyewitness said.
Mary Day, 26, was at Wal-Mart at 4 a.m. to buy gifts and other things for the holidays-and she said she was returning during the day to pick up a TV she had on layaway. She figured a second trip through the super store would yield more goodies. "Hopefully I'll see some other stuff in there I can pick up," she said. "Tomorrow's gonna be reckless."
And by 5 a.m. - now late in Black Friday shopping - the South Philadelphia Toys R Us was nearly empty. Employees were restocking shelves from a rush earlier in the night. The hottest seller, according to an employee: A 7-inch tablet from Coby selling for $70, down from a $150 retail price.