CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There’s no rest for the bargain hunters in West Virginia with the holiday shopping season now officially underway and Christmas looming.
In some cases in some places, shoppers spent money through the night starting on Thanksgiving Day and continuing into Black Friday.
“We started around 11 p.m. Thursday,” Cathy Beck from St. Albans in Kanawha County told MetroNews at the Charleston Town Center Mall around 3 a.m. Friday.
“I like to try to get the best deals,” she said pointing to the stack of bags she and another family member were toting. “If the door’s open (at a store) in this mall, we’ve been there,” Beck joked.
Janet Rowe from Mount Carbon in Fayette County got started at 5 p.m. Thursday. “It’s fun. It really is,” she said of the holiday shopping experience that involved many of her family members. “Usually we don’t go home until this evening (Friday).”
It may no longer be the day retailers roll into the black, but steady shopping traffic was reported throughout the Mountain State on Thursday and Friday and sales were scheduled on Saturday and Sunday as well.
Black Friday shopping, retail analysts said, has turned into a weekend marathon that, more and more, also includes online shopping.
KMart and RadioShack staged early morning openings on Thanksgiving Day while places like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Kohl’s were among the retailers that opened their doors on Thursday night.
It took Katie Loudermilk more than two hours to get to the Charleston Town Center Mall.
“They had a lot of stores to choose from and I come here every year,” she told MetroNews from the coffee line at Starbucks in the early morning hours.
Amanda Morrison from Mingo County had no real shopping plan as of 3 a.m. Friday, though she had already done some shopping online.
“It was just a random idea for some friends to come shop. So, I’m here. I’m here along for the ride,” Morrison said.