CRESTVIEW — Don’t tell him, but the News Bulletin knows what Joseph Rosali’s getting for Christmas.
His mom, Angela Frame, shopping first thing Black Friday morning, snagged him a cellphone.
With many national retailers moving former Black Friday bargains ahead to Thanksgiving day, the once traditional first morning of Christmas shopping was peaceful in Crestview.
That suited shoppers like Nancy Vance just fine. Though she was in the Crestview Wal-Mart by 4:30 p.m. Thanksgiving evening, when 6 p.m. sales went into effect, she left.
“At 5:59, the mayhem started,” she said. “The young girls and ladies were being pushed over by the young men and boys pushing to get to the video games.”
ALTERCATIONS
Crestview Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Schneider said though no police reports were filed Thursday evening, with stores having limited inventories suddenly going on sale for tremendously reduced prices, some altercations are bound to occur.
“We always have it around Black Friday,” Schneider said. “Every single year they have had those sales, they have had an altercation of some sort.”
Schneider said shoppers generally gird themselves for the inevitable fracas.
“Most of the time people seem to expect they’re going to be in the middle of it,” Schneider said. “It’s survival of the fittest sometimes.”
Vance returned Friday morning to a largely empty parking lot and get a cellphone for a gift recipient.
“There were two left," she said, holding one up triumphantly as she headed for her car.
$10K IN 3 HOURS
Farther north on State Road 85, Big Lots manager Jayme Rivaldo said her store opened at 7 a.m. Thanksgiving day, during which the furniture department alone did about $10,000 in sales before 10 a.m.
“We had people waiting at our doors when we opened,” Rivaldo said. “We’re expecting a good season.”
For shopper Peter Brill, who carried a coffeemaker from Big Lots to his car Friday morning, fighting Thanksgiving day crowds had no appeal.
“There’s something called Amazon.com,” he said. “I can shop from my couch, and for other stuff like this, I can stop in here on my way to work.”
Besides, he said, Thanksgiving day offered much more important diversions than battling crowds.
“My Bears were whupping some butt,” Brill said of the Chicago 17-13 football victory over Green Bay. “And I had leftovers to eat.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Black Friday moves to Thanksgiving Day in Crestview; Friday morning is calm