CHARLESTON, W.Va. — This Friday was not your typical Friday in the early morning hours outside the Cabela’s location at Charleston’s Southridge in Kanawha County.
Small heaters, tents, folding chairs, and even some televisions were lined up from the front door around to the side of the building as West Virginia residents and others awaited the 5 a.m. Black Friday opening time.
Some were curled up in blankets, huddled over tablets or talking to pass the time.
While other large retailers in the Capital City and elsewhere in West Virginia opened their doors on Thursday and some remained open through Friday, Cabela’s was closed for the holiday with planned deals, discounts and giveaways slated for Black Friday.
On Friday, Butch Epling from Boone County was with some friends not far from the front of the line that began forming on Thanksgiving Day.
According to Epling, they were there for “the fun of it.” “It ain’t to win nothing, it’s just to be here. All of us get together and have a good time,” he told MetroNews around 2:30 a.m. Friday.
At that point, he’d been outside Cabela’s since 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We’ve been here three years in a row. We’ve been right here at the door. We’re 5th and 6th, 7th right here now. Last year, we were like 3rd and 4th,” Epling said.
Thursday was a relatively mild night. Last year was colder, Epling noted, and the year before that it snowed.
Not far ahead of Epling in line was Tina Kirk from Pikeville, Kentucky who was with a couple of her family members. It was not her first Thanksgiving night at Cabela’s either where in the past, she admitted, the weather had been a problem.
“It’s better this year than it has been,” she said. “Last year, it was super cold. It was very cold last year. We couldn’t hardly stand it.”
Kirk was about 12 hours into her Cabela’s waiting shift when she spoke with MetroNews on Friday morning more than two hours before the store was scheduled to open for Black Friday.
“Every year we come out,” Kirk said. “I just came from Walmart and got my Black Friday stuff and I came straight here and I’ve been sitting here all day and now it’s all night.”
She was planning to buy her son a GoPro Hero 5 camera and a muzzleloader for Christmas.
“He hunts and fishes, that’s all he does. He wants to record his outings,” Kirk said. “They’ve got a good deal on a muzzleloader so, that’s what mommies do.”
Farther back in line was Steven Hoffman from Kanawha County and his son, Shannon Hoffman, of Alum Creek. The two have been making an overnight stay outside Cabela’s part of their Thanksgiving tradition since the retail store opened its doors in August 2012.
“It’s fun. We buy clothes, guns, whatever’s inside the store here. We just have a ball doing this,” said the elder Hoffman. “They’re giving out gift cards, money, prizes, you’ve got a chance to win a gun and we just love doing this.”
The two got to Cabela’s before 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
“We had a big dinner at the house (first). Believe me, my wife loves to get rid of me and this is what we do. We come down here, stand in line, play cards, stay warm and just talk to everybody,” Hoffman said.
“We do this every year and we look forward to it, to be honest with you.”