Black Friday shoppers descend on Chattanooga area stores

photo Shoppers flood into the Target off of Gunbarrel Road in hopes of picking up a few "Black Friday" deals Thanksgiving evening.
photo Rossville, Ga., resident Allissa Seidel and her parents Brooke and Keith Seidel look at a doorbuster ad while lined up with hundreds of other shoppers for special "Black Friday" deals Thanksgiving evening at the Target store on Gunbarrel Road.

Chattanooga retailers are experiencing slower, yet steady crowds today after seeing busy traffic overnight.

Hamilton Place mall marketing director Catharine Wells said that by opening at 6 p.m. on Thursday - two hours earlier than a year ago - most customers had a more enjoyable shopping experience.

"By opening two house earlier what we saw was it wasn't as crazy busy right away," she said.

Wells said things were steady throughout the night, though many stores experienced a lull between 4 and 7 a.m. Boots were the big seller Thursday, and today and most mall stores were offering 40 to 60 percent off their entire inventory, she said.

"That's huge," Wells said.

The Hixson Kmart was still hopping around noon today. Though many of the doorbuster items were long gone, manager Rick Williams said the crowd remained thick with people shopping deals on TVs, bicycles, games and toys.

"About like always," he said.

Kmart had doorbusters as early as 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving.

"We were open starting Thursday and we don't close until tonight," Williams said. "So we didn't have to deal with a line."

Both the shoppers and Kmart staff are used to the Black Friday routine, Williams said, so there were no issues.

"We do this every year," he said. "Pretty much every one expects it and we go with it."

For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Upcoming Events