Early Specials Tempt Shoppers

Bargain hunters hauled themselves from bed in the darkness this morning to wrangle for parking spots and wait in lines as the holiday shopping season officially lurched into gear.

It did not go off without a hitch.

Just ask Shannon Christian, who rose at 4:45 a.m. and drove from San Juan Capistrano to Fountain Valley to snap up a $15 DVD player only to be foiled by a traffic jam as she neared Fry’s Electronics.

Unwilling to waste precious time, Christian zipped over to the Target Greatland in Costa Mesa, which was selling a similar product for almost twice that amount, only to learn that it would be opening an hour later than advertised to appease neighbors. “I’d pay twice as much for less hassle,” the 36-year-old account executive said, after opting to wait in line with some 250 other shoppers who were set to pounce when the doors finally opened at 7.

“I’m still going to be stoked to buy a DVD player for 28 bucks.”

Vigorously, if not joyfully, consumers descended on stores across the nation today in hopes of scoring deals.

The day after Thanksgiving was the busiest shopping day of the year in 2003, although that hasn’t typically been the case over the last decade. Known as “Black Friday” because it was supposedly the day retailers shift from “the red” into “the black” to reap profits, it marks the traditional kickoff of a shopping season that actually starts before Halloween.

Sales figures won’t be available until next week to show whether consumers actually outdid themselves compared with last year. The National Retail Federation, the industry’s largest trade group, has predicted that up to 130 million people will shop today through Sunday, helping to boost spending to $219.9 billion this holiday season, which would be a 4.5% increase over 2003.

“This weekend is, without question, the most important weekend” for retailers, in terms of giving them a glimpse into the upcoming Christmas season, said Richard Giss, head of Deloitte & Touche’s retail group in Los Angeles.

Glendale Galleria, where JC Penney gave away 3,800 snow globes within 45 minutes of opening, was exceptionally busy today, according to Giss’ partner Jackie Fernandez, who has been roaming Southland malls on Black Friday for close to a decade.

“At JC Penney, the lines at 6:30 in the morning were out the door; Robinson-May, the same thing,” she said. “It’s certainly the busiest I’ve seen since the late 1990s.”

Ditto at Lakewood Center, where economist Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. surveyed the scene.

“They had lines outside some of the stores at midnight,” Kyser reported at 11 a.m. Friday.