Black Friday shopping: Area stores say they still have deals today

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

UPDATE @ 2:03 P.M. 

Abby Jump, of Enon, dug through a bin of DVDs at Walmart in Beavercreek. She said she waited to shop this morning, and didn’t go out on Thanksgiving.

“The Greene wasn’t bad,” she said. “There were some really good specials at Alta. The line was really long.”

UPDATE @ 12:03 p.m.

UPDATE @ 8:30 a.m.

James Maggard, of Franklin, sat on a bench in the Dayton Mall, waiting for his family as they shopped around for gifts. He said they woke up early to go to Toys“R”Us, which he said “wasn’t busy at all.”

“We went to Walmart last night,” he said. “Now, that was awful. I have PTSD and it all came back last night. I told my wife I had to just go out to the car.”

He said a “little old lady” grabbed an electronics item right out of his hand at Walmart. Today has been calm with smaller crowds, he said.

His daughters plan to go to Barnes and Noble after the Dayton Mall, but Maggard said most of his holiday shopping is already done. “I ordered most of everything online.”

Kenna Davis and Tera Estep, of Middletown, started their day of shopping at 4 a.m. at the Cabela’s in West Chester Twp.. The lines were so long that they opted out of buying anything at all.

“It was unreal,” Davis said.

After that, they went to Target, which didn’t have any lines. “We thought it would be jam-packed.

Sitting in the Dayton Mall with Auntie Anne’s pretzels, the women waited on a bench for Estep’s daughters who shopped in Victoria’s Secret.

“I’m not a crowd-fighter,” Davis said.

UPDATE @ 7:28 a.m. 

UPDATE @ 6:20 a.m.

More than 600 people waited in line for door buster deals at Cabela’s in Centerville. The line was significantly smaller than last year, when more than 1,000 people showed up for the first Black Friday at the retailer’s Centerville location.

A Cabela’s spokeswoman said one person claimed a free firearm. The store is expected to give away two free firearms today, as well as gift cards and other prizes.

INITIAL REPORT:

Consumers got an early start on their shopping on Thanksgiving, but plenty of retailers will offer special Black Friday deals today.

Black Friday is still expected to be the busiest shopping day of the weekend — with 115 million people expected to do their buying today. An estimated 164 million people are planning to shop this weekend, according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The numbers include Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sunday and Cyber Monday.

» RELATED: 17 retail horror stories that show working Black Friday is the worst

Holiday spending in Ohio is expected to grow 2 percent this year compared to 2016, bringing in an estimated $24.1 billion statewide — and people in the Dayton region are expected to spend more than last year. NRF projects that holiday retail sales in November and December this year will be up between 3.6 percent and 4 percent for a total between $678.8 billion and $682 billion. Consumers say they will spend an average $967.13 this year, according to the annual survey conducted.

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