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Before going to bed Thanksgiving night, Camila Michel set her alarm for 4:57 a.m.
This was going to be the her first Black Friday, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss a beat. “I really just wanted to shop,” Camila said. “I heard it was going to be crazy.”
Camila, accompanied by her parents and sister Natalia, was among the hordes of Black Friday shoppers who woke early to get a jump on their holiday buying, try to strike a blockbuster bargain or just soak in a generations-old tradition.
With her family, Camila arrived at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in San Jose at 6 a.m. when only a few of the big retailers were open; by 8:30 a.m they already had scoped out almost 10 stores. For the Michel family, Black Friday was more about family time than big deals.
“The only reason we came was because they really wanted to experience it,” said Camila’s mom, Esmeralda Michel. “Now that I’m older, I do most of my shopping online. But I have good memories going as a kid.”
Although more and more people are doing their holiday shopping from the comfort of their homes, where deals can be had with just a few keyboard strokes, some still prefer to brave blustery weather and caffeinated crowds to shop the aisles of good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar retail stores.
Early Friday morning, lines of shoppers queued outside of an eclectic mix of shops at Westfield Valley Fair and Santana Row — from specialty stores such as LEGO to high-end spots such as Lululemon to technology havens such as Best Buy.
Sunny Raj and his girlfriend, Valerie Perez, were the first in line outside Newpark’s Best Buy on Friday morning, having arrived at 5 — three hours before the store would open.
They had their sights on a 65-inch Hisense television that came with a special discount available only to shoppers in the flesh. “We already bought what we could online,” Sunny said.
Nancy Pagan, 65, usually shops online and hasn’t done Black Friday in a store for years, but she made an exception this week and hit the Newpark Mall in Newark because the Macy’s website didn’t have the boots she wants in black and she knew she could find them in the store.
“I’m really surprised how easy this was. It was even easy to park right in front of the mall.”
Black Friday has become a less urgent shopping day than it once was as more people have moved to online shopping and retailers have extended the major discounts for weeks leading up to it.
Still, according to a survey conducted at the end of October by the National Retail Federation, slightly more people — 47 percent — said they intend to do their shopping in physical stores than the 41 percent who planned to start online.
With record-low unemployment and rising incomes in the Bay Area, analysts are predicting a big holiday season for shoppers.
Last month, state labor officials reported that the jobless rates in the nine-county Bay Area region, as well as California, hit record-low levels.
The National Retail Federation predicts November and December holiday retail sales this year will top last year’s by about 4 percent, for a total of about $730 billion.
Jason Woosley, vice president of commerce product and platform at Adobe Analytics, a division of San Jose-based Adobe that predicts and tracks spending habits of consumers, said this year Thanksgiving Day spending soared past $4 billion for the first time ever.
He said in a written statement that Thanksgiving “has fast become a favored day by consumers for accelerating their holiday spending and shopping efforts.” The momentum would grow with Black Friday, which Adobe predicted to reach $7.5 billion in online spending alone.
Elizabeth Shipsides was one of those who started her shopping on Thanksgiving, right after dinner.
Shipsides has been a Black Friday black belt for almost 20 years. She always has a plan of attack and often works as a team with friends and family.
She would rather have waited for Friday, but she rolled with it.
“Most deals are gone within minutes of 6 p.m. Thanksgiving,” Shipsides explained.
“You have to know what you need (and want),” the Fremont mother of three added. “I usually do the heavy core stuff at Walmart and then later in the evening the boys join me at Target and we hide in the Christmas area for a while. No one goes there because Black Friday deals are not in the holiday area. So peaceful.”
The 41-year-old uses a Black Friday app to track her key items, such as $1.75 towels from Walmart, Pyrex dishes and video games for the kids. She believes the deals are better on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday.
“Cyber Monday is for those people who aren’t quick enough to grab something,” she said. She also enjoys the thrill of the hunt at the mall. “I don’t like Cyber Monday. I like to be out and about — not in front of the computer.”
She also enjoys the tradition because you get to spend time with your pals.
“It could be a bonding time, especially when you are helping each other to get the thing you want,” she says. “We end up talking a lot while waiting in the long, long, long lines.”
For many, Black Friday is more about the tradition than the deals.
Valery Brioso, 59, has been hitting Newpark Mall on Black Friday for the last 30 years.
“It gets me in the holiday spirit,” Brioso said. “It’s not so much about the deals, although they are far better today than on Monday, but it really kicks off the Christmas season for me and gets me in the mood.”
Shopping with her sister-in-law Debbie Hegland, 61, she says it’s a fun chance to socialize and chat. On her list Friday were men’s shirts and slippers at Kohl’s.
“The line is always 30 deep at Kohl’s, but they have real steals,” the Fremont resident said. “It’s worth it.”
“We are veterans of Black Friday,” Hegland chimed in.
Santa Whalen, 72, has gone shopping at Newpark with her two daughters for the last 26 years.
In the old days, they would begin their hunt at 2 a.m. but this Friday they started at the civilized hour of 8:30 a.m. at Macy’s with plans to hit Kohl’s shortly.
While they want a good deal — such as the free crock pots at Macy’s with a mail-in rebate — it’s more about the holiday spirit.
“This is a family tradition. We love hearing all the Christmas music,” said Whalen, a Newark resident. “By the end of the day, we are singing all the songs.”
