Ready, set, shop! Local crowds form Thursday night for Black Friday

One day after most Beaufort County residents shared holiday meals with family and friends, many of them will head to the mall, outlets and other stores to get the best deals on gifts ahead of the Christmas season.

Many stores have extended hours today, Black Friday. Retailers expected shoppers to line up well before stores' early opening times.

Bluffton Target manager Gary Tomlin, whose store opened at 6 a.m., said he expected customers to begin queuing up outside by 4 a.m.

"We'll be assisting people outside, telling them where their items are located," he said. "We'll try to keep it as calm and orderly as we can."

Target employees planned to distribute about 500 color-coded maps of the store, highlighting the locations of the most popular items -- televisions, GPS units, digital cameras and video games.

The same items popular at Target also are popular at Best Buy, said Chad Taylor, the store's manager.

Best Buy opened at 5 a.m., but store employees were to begin distributing tickets to customers lined up for popular items, including computers, around 3 a.m., Taylor said. Customers were expected to line up as early as Thursday night, he said.

Tanger Outlet Center's officials also were expecting shoppers to begin showing up Thursday night.

Tanger stores opened at midnight, offering special savings and gift cards to the customers who got there first. They will remain open until 9 p.m. today.

Beth Hilton, a Tanger spokeswoman, said store employees see a different crowd for the midnight shopping than the morning shopping. "It's younger kids and power shoppers" who come around midnight and then "go to Target and Best Buy when they open," she said.

According to a preliminary Black Friday shopping survey conducted for the National Retail Federation, up to 128 million Americans will shop today, Saturday or Sunday. That number is down slightly from the 135 million people who said they would shop over the Black Friday weekend last year, according to the trade association.

According to the survey, 49 million people definitely will hit the stores, while another 79 million are waiting to see the weekend deals before making decisions.