Carrying on a tradition

For Nicole Johnson, her mother and her two sisters, Black Friday is an annual ritual. The four women, who live scattered around Rockingham County, spent Thanksgiving evening planning their course of action for what’s known as the biggest shopping day of the year.

“The guys have their football, we have our sales papers,” Johnson said with a laugh.

By 8 a.m. Friday, the four were loading up the car at Wal-Mart in Reidsville and were close to being done with their shopping. They had been at it for six hours, beginning in Danville, Va.

“We hit up Old Navy first,” Johnson said. “Then we went to Target and the mall. We’re heading to Greensboro now and then we’ll be done.”

Johnson and her family aren’t the only ones who make a tradition out of Black Friday shopping.

“I didn’t sleep at all last night,” Ashleigh Terry of Ruffin said mid-morning Friday as she filled her car with goodies from Kmart. “But I got some really good deals, so it was worth it.”

Erika Cassell, assistant manager at Kmart in Reidsville, said her store kicked off its holiday deals on Thursday and carried the savings over to what the company calls “Blue Friday.”

“We have the little blue lightbulb guy, so we have Blue Friday instead of Black Friday,” Cassell said, referring to her company’s marketing tool.
Cassell said customers were lined up at the door with the store opened at 6 a.m. Friday.

“We’ve done very well,” she said. “I’d say we’ve done better than last year.”

Among the most popular items at Kmart were small electronics including cameras, GPS units and camcorders, Cassell. She also said certain toys were proving to be extremely popular.

“We’ve had a lot of toys flying off the counter,” she said.

Also selling well were clothing items. Cassell said it seemed like more people were focusing on the necessities rather than big ticket items, such as televisions.
Allison Smith, who spent the day shopping around Reidsville, said she didn’t get up as early as a lot of shoppers, but was pleased with her purchases.

“I don’t want to say what I bought because someone might read it, but I got some good stuff,” she said. “I’m not one to get up at, like, 4 in the morning, but I think it’s definitely worth it to go out on Black Friday. You can really save a bunch of money.”