When the going gets tough before dawn ...
The hunt began before dawn Friday.
And it wasn’t just the big-screen TVs, Bratz dolls, Hollister hoodies, digital cameras and iPods. Shoppers started early in search for 6 a.m. deep discounts, bargains, gift cards -- and pretty much anything on sale.
In Costa Mesa, police were called to a Best Buy store about 3 a.m. to calm some 2,000 people, many anxiously awaiting the 5 a.m. opening.
At 6 a.m., Alex Fuentes and family arrived at Lakewood Center. It was his first day-after-Thanksgiving sale since moving to Los Angeles 15 years ago.
It was unlike anything he experienced growing up in Mexico, he said with a smile. “Not like this.”
By midmorning, Fuentes was relegated to sitting alone guarding four bags from the Disney Store and two others from Victoria’s Secret while his wife Norma pressed on with her shopping.
At 7 a.m., Beth Kuney, 40, and her daughters left Bakersfield for a two-hour drive to the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. Their destination: American Girl Place.
And so it went all day long -- in between jobs, football and turkey leftovers -- as they came and went on the traditional start of holiday shopping.
Although it is too early to gauge how business was on the first day, the National Retail Federation said that as many as 137 million people would hit stores nationwide this weekend, and the industry’s largest trade group forecast a 5% increase in sales for the holiday shopping period from 2005’s level. Sales rose 6% last year.
By lunchtime Friday, customers at a Circuit City in Burbank didn’t have to wait to get into the store as they were at 5 a.m., but their patience was tested as they looked for a parking place and paid for merchandise.
“I don’t know whether to be more excited about the deals here or finding a space after 20 minutes of circling,” said James Avila, a 42-year-old carpenter who planned to stock up on $6.99-a-pop music CDs for his nieces and nephews. “I’m here to get bargains and not pay extra for parking nearby.”
Shelling out for a space for the car would have “meant defeat,” he said.
Camille Ring, 13, of Laguna Beach did her shopping at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. “I just normally walk around, and if I see something I want, I make a mental note,” she said. At the time, she was scouting out open-foot leggings.
Sarah Miller, 18, of Yorba Linda was also went to Fashion Island, where she shopped at Juicy Couture with a friend. “Designer jeans are popular, and we’re really into dresses right now,” Miller said. The two young women planned to shop into the evening -- with time out for lunch, of course.
At the Grove, Bakersfield resident Kuney emerged from American Girl Place with about half a dozen bags in hand -- one with a doll box nearly 2 feet tall.
Wending her way through crowds on her way to the car, Kuney said, “This is my walk of shame.” Not far behind -- packages in hand -- trailed her daughters and their grandmother.
In Santa Monica, Hennessey & Ingalls, an art and architecture bookstore, saw a rise in customer traffic at its Wilshire Boulevard location near the Third Street Promenade.
And Arts & Letters, a greeting card store on Main Street, planned to stay open until 7 p.m. “It’s our busiest season,” said manager Linda Oppenheim, and the store is seeing an uptick in business from last year. “We stay open an hour later to meet the needs of the customers who are out later shopping.”
Not everyone was buying into the 6 a.m. rush for bargains.
Karen Diebolt, 53, accompanied by daughter Kimberly, 26, arrived at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga around 5 p.m., 12 hours after the mall’s first store opened.
The longtime resident of Alta Loma said the shopping center was “the best thing the city’s ever done,” but not worth braving the early-morning crowds: “We’re smarter. We sleep in, we relax, we take it as it comes.”
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ashley.surdin@latimes.com
francisco.varaorta@latimes.com
Times staff writer Adrian G. Uribarri contributed to this report, and the Associated Press was used in compiling it.
