Staff Photo by Margaret Fenton
Shoppers browse electronics at the Hixson Best Buy Wednesday afternoon. The store is among many local businesses opening at 5 a.m. Friday to attract early holiday shoppers.

A washer-dryer combo for buy-one-get-one-free prices, GPS navigation systems marked down more than half and high megapixel digital cameras for less than $100 are indicators Black Friday could turn out to be a bargain shopper’s dream.

Retailers from Sears to Best Buy have knocked down their prices in an effort to get people through their doors.

For some people such as Chattanooga resident Becca Mashburn, the huge discounts may lure her to the stores even though she has little money to spend.

“I love the excitement of Black Friday,” she said. “It’s fun to go venture into the crowded stores.”

Black Friday received its name because it historically is the day when a surge of shoppers help stores break into profitability for the full year.

Many stores are opening their doors before the first streams of sunlight peak over the horizon. Best Buy in Hixson will open its doors at 5 a.m., but manager Mike Brown will be there at 3 a.m.

Based on the number of people calling ahead, he expects people to be lined up at the store when the doors officially open.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of people come in asking about laptops; desktops and TVs are the big things,” Mr. Brown said.

Some of those people had seen the store’s Black Friday sale circular before it was available Thanksgiving Day, he said.

At Best Buy, shoppers who get there early can save $300 on a HP laptop that comes with a printer or save $800 on a 52-inch HDTV.

The deals just may work, too, on shoppers who have a little extra money thanks to lower gas prices, according to a Black Friday survey conducted by the National Retail Federation.

The survey shows that up to 128 million people will shop this holiday weekend, fewer than the 135 million people who said they would shop the weekend last year. Though shoppers are expected to be restrained in the buying, pent-up demand from consumers who have been waiting all year long for great deals could also bode well for some retailers, according to the trade group.

“Retailers realize that low prices will get consumers into stores this holiday season, and this could be the most heavily promotional Black Friday in history,” said Tracy Mullin, the retail group’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “Shoppers who held off buying a DVD player or winter coat over the last few months will find that prices may literally be too good to pass up.”

Those who do get up early in the hopes of snagging a deal will see markdowns on everything from winter coats to kitchen items such as stand-up mixers. Many items appearing in sale papers will be between 40 and 50 percent off their original prices.