The 2007 holiday shopping season kicked off on Friday with crowds of shoppers, many braving the bitter cold, snagging early bargains on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Analysts expected moderate sales this year as consumers struggle with the slumping US housing market, a credit crunch, rising food and fuel costs and uncertainty about their jobs.
At the cavernous Palisades Mall in the New York City suburb of West Nyack, which opened its doors at 3 a.m., lines formed outside of the Apple Inc, Macy's Inc, Old Navy and Circuit City Inc stores. Many in the crowd were sustained by offers of free coffee.
Known as "Black Friday," the day after the US Thanksgiving Day holiday marks the first day of the holiday shopping season for most consumers and a time to snag cheap deals, freebies and sales.
"Black Friday" once marked the day many retailers turned a profit, or went into the black, for the year.
It used to be the busiest shopping day of the year, but procrastinators and others looking for last-minute gifts have transferred that honour to the Saturday before Christmas.
On Black Friday, many retailers opened their doors well before dawn, offering deep discounts. This year J.C. Penney Co Inc opened at 4 a.m., Toys "R" Us and Best Buy Co. Inc. opened at 5 a.m. and Macy's Inc. opened its stores at 6 a.m.
Some malls even opened shortly after midnight. At a Best Buy store in Geneva, Illinois, about 150 people lined up in bitter cold weather that some veteran Black Friday shoppers said was the worst they'd seen yet. They also said the crowds were far smaller than previous years.
The National Retail Federation, a trade group, expects total holiday retail sales, including November and December, to rise gour percent to $474.5 billion this year. That would mark the slowest holiday sales growth since 2002, when sales rose 1.3 per cent, and would fall below the 10-year holiday sales average of a 4.8 per cent increase.
But at New York-area Sears and Kmart stores, the crowds waiting outside were thicker than last year, according to spokeswoman Alison Kmiotek, who said the big sellers were digital cameras, televisions and toys.