Shoppers hit the stores to find holiday bargains

In fact, many of those who arrived at stores early Friday came away disappointed. They were plenty of customers like Brian Clark, 27, who left empty-handed from the West Hartford Best Buy after the televisions and computers he’d eyed as Christmas gifts were snatched by even earlier shoppers.

Alarmed by a recent shooting of a customer waiting outside a Connecticut Wal-Mart for the highly sought Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console, Clark had tucked his Glock pistol in a holster under his jacket and put extra ammunition in his pocket before heading out early Friday.

“You never know these days,” he said, quickly adding that he has a state permit for a concealed weapon.

Gary Miller, a 45-year-old computer programmer in Cincinnati, was at Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. to hunt for a 20-inch LCD television he had seen advertised online.

“My wife sent me out for this one,” he said, pointing to the set in his shopping cart. “But then I saw this one (a 20-inch conventional TV) for $85 and said, ‘What the heck, I’ll get that one, too.”’

At the Glendale Galleria in suburban Los Angeles, The Gap had been set to open at 5 a.m. but unlocked the doors 15 minutes early to accommodate a long line of shoppers, said Fran Vartanian, district manager of the chain. Sales were brisk, with all prices reduced by 30 percent until noon — a first-time promotion for the store. Sweatshirts with hoods were big sellers at about $35 after the discount.

While Black Friday officially starts holiday shopping, generally it’s no longer the busiest day of the season. That honor now falls to the last Saturday before Christmas. Stores say Black Friday sets the tone for the weeks ahead, however: What consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the season.

This year, analysts expect robust holiday sales gains for the retail industry, though the growth is expected to be slower than a year ago. The National Retail Federation projects a 5 percent gain in total holiday sales for the November-December period, less than the 6.1 percent in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, the International Council of Shopping Centers estimates sales at stores open at least a year will rise 3 percent in the November-December period, less than last year’s 3.6 percent.

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