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SALT LAKE CITY — Black Friday shoppers were already camping out in front of some Utah stores Wednesday, hoping to get the jump on other relative late-comers for the best deals.
“We’ve always been the first person here,” Stephany Vargas said, alongside her sister and father.
Standing outside the Best Buy at 261 W. 2100 South next to the family’s tent, Vargas said they had been first-in-line for four years straight and had arrived at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night.
She said they would be upset if they weren’t first.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been doing this, so we got used to it,” Vargas said.
Nearby, Nathaniel Juarez was pleased he had moved up from fifth position last year to third this year.
Inside his tent, only a few items to help pass the time.
“Blankets, we got the puzzles and some McDonald’s,” Juarez said, pointing around the confined space.
Juarez admitted that the accommodations were not overly hospitable.
“It’s very uncomfortable — it’s like no padding at all,” he chuckled. “It helps a little bit, but yeah it’s not comfortable.”
Regardless, the die-hardest of the die-hard Black Friday shoppers said it was worth it for the deals.
Best Buy was offering a 50-inch flat screen TV for $200.
You will never find me camping out on Black Friday. I'm going to stay home and laugh at everybody else who's out here being crazy.
–Dale Hart
“This is an awesome one,” supervisor Sara Wright said, pointing to one of the store's headliner offerings.
The retailer’s floor was packed with TVs, and Wright said more were still slated to arrive before the store’s Black Friday opening at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving night.
Wright was promising an orderly experience for shoppers.
“Everyone thinks that on Black Friday they’re going to get trampled, they’re going to get stomped on, they’re not going to get everything they want — it’s not really true,” Wright said.
Wright said the store planned to limit shoppers in the store initially to 50 to 70 at a time.
“Once they get settled in, they’re already waiting just to get checked out, then we’ll let the next group go in,” Wright said.
For Kami Johnson — another Black Friday camper — the process was an afterthought, with a guaranteed spot in the first group in the door.
Johnson said her family was postponing Thanksgiving dinner until Black Friday to take advantage of the deals.
“It’s OK,” Johnson shrugged. “It’s cold and a little aggravating we have to wait until Black Friday to do Thanksgiving so we can actually Black Friday shop.”
Other shoppers Wednesday night, though, said they didn’t care enough about the advertised deals to wait it out along a cold storefront.
“I don’t do Black Friday, I don’t like crowds,” said Dale Hart. “It was worth it to me to buy it early.”
Over Hart’s shoulder were the campers, as he loaded a 65-inch ultra high definition television in his truck.
“You will never find me camping out on Black Friday,” Hart said. “I’m going to stay home and laugh at everybody else who’s out here being crazy.”
Andrew Adams is a multi-media journalist for KSL NewsRadio and KSL-TV. His work also regularly appears in the Deseret News. Email: aadams@ksl.com
