Like all across the nation, Black Friday shopping got off to its earliest start yet in in central and northern New York. Retailers across the region hope the day will be the beginning of a strong holiday shopping season. While a Siena College poll showed that a majority of New Yorkers think stores should not open on Thanksgiving night, store managers said they had good business until the wee hours of the morning Friday.
Matt Luppino of the Target store in New Hartford said it was extremely busy from opening at 9 p.m. last night until about 2 a.m., then slowed down until more normal business hours this morning. Luppino said shoppers are definitely shopping for certain products.
"A lot of electronics - televisions, more televisions, and more televisions -- toys, entertainment, a lot of home decor and domestics. But the primary draw certainly is our entertainment, our electronics and our TVs," Luppino said.
Shoppers at the Best Buy in New Hartford were also on the lookout for deals in computers and electronics. General Manager John Spinelli says he's very happy with their overnight business.
"When we opened up at midnight, we probably had 600 or 700 people in line. We had a great crowd. It took us about an hour and-a-half to get them all through the building, just to get them through front door. And they came in, and got what they wanted and left," said Spinelli. He said the store was a lot quieter about two and-a-half hours after opening.
Spinelli says he knows it's controversial to open up on Thanksgiving night, so they will analyze how things went before deciding what to do next year. But he says, like many retailers, Black Friday is the biggest revenue day for his store for the year.
Retailers say doing well during the holiday period is key to determining the year's profits.