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December 1, 2008

New York – Americans, who had snapped their wallets shut since September, flocked to stores before dawn on Friday to grab deals on goods from televisions to toys on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, feared to be the weakest in decades.

It was clear that despite the crowds that showed up for the discounts, shoppers’ worries about the US economy tempered buying.

Retailers extended their hours, some opening at midnight, and offered deals that promised to be deeper and wider than even the discounts that shoppers found throughout last month.

Best Buy, the electronics store, offered such specials as a 120cm Panasonic plasma high-definition television for $899.99 (R9 100).

At the Best Buy branch in Syracuse, New York, a queue snaked past stores and around walkways on the second floor of Carousel Center a few moments before the store’s 5am opening – about eight hours after some people near the front of the queue had arrived.

Black Friday, named because it was often the day when retailers would become profitable for the year, was the

biggest sales generator of the season last year.

While it is not a predictor of holiday season sales, the day after Thanksgiving is an important barometer of people’s willingness to spend.

Many consumers, clutching the store circulars, were focused on a few bargains and said they were slashing their holiday budgets from a year ago as they juggled paying their bills with putting food on the table.

But not everyone received what they bargained for in this shopping frenzy.

Police are reviewing a surveillance video of a Friday shopper stampede that trampled to death temporary Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour.

Nassau County, New York police and Wal-Mart said no new information was available on Saturday about the brutal incident, which rattled shoppers even as they flocked to the Long Island store a day later.

“It felt a little freakish,” a customer, Ellie Berhun, told the Daily News.

“Some man lost his life because [of] a sale? Please. It’s just too sad for words.” – SAPA-AP