BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Black Friday shoppers line up in front of Best Buy at 4:15 a.m. Friday in hope of grabbing some of the doorbuster deals offered when the store opened at 5 a.m. A Dynex 32-inch, flat-panel LCD HDTV was offered to the first 20 customers for $449.99, a $300 discount.
Around 4:30 a.m. at the first stop she made, Jessica Garcia lost the shopping list she spent all Thanksgiving day making.
It made her Friday harder, she said, but she went on.
Target, Big 5, Radio Shack, J.C. Penney.
Shoes, music, games, DVD players.
Garcia loaded all her Christmas presents into the family van Friday morning. She waited in lines, checked tags and scanned catalogs. She had a rough idea of how much she wanted to spend and, with her father, her sister, her baby sitter, her sister's friend, her baby sitter's son, she got up at 3:30 a.m. to drive to Carson City from Incline Village.
"My husband was going to come," she said, "and then he said, 'No, I don't want to deal with all that craziness."
The worst was waiting in line for Target to open at 6 a.m., she said, but by the time she was shopping at J.C. Penney four hours later, it was crowded but not that bad except for a few crying children.
"This is why I left my daughter at home," she said as a screaming child passed her.
This is Garcia's third year shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. She said she does it for the sales, especially those she gets when she comes to Nevada and saves $300 by avoiding California.
Shopping around Carson City is a lot better than the "crazy" traffic around the San Francisco Bay area, she said, where she works as a child therapist.
The only time the rush could compare was when she was at Wal-Mart.
"Oh my gosh," she said, "we almost got killed there."
But throughout the morning, she stayed calm picking out shirts for her husband, movies for her daughter, a wallet for her baby sitter.
"I bet the credit card companies are happy today," she said.
Her baby sitter, Martha Garzon, said she did most of her Christmas shopping Friday. She looked for rugs for her bathroom, sweatshirts for her son and other gifts for her family. Her best deal was an eight-piece luggage set for $50.
"It's gifts, gifts, gifts for everyone," Garzon said.
Both Garcia and Garzon said they aren't sure who is going to buy Christmas gifts for them, but hopefully their husbands will find something.
Garcia said she bought a watch for herself to replace one that broke, so that was kind of a gift.
While Garcia and Garzon said they were excited about the seven hours of shopping, not everyone in their group felt the same way.
"We get dragged along," said Garcia's sister, Julie Claspill. "That's kind of what happens."
• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.