Sun Sets on Black Friday with Door-Busters Long Gone

The sun has set on Black Friday, but shoppers were still hunting for bargains into the dark hours— in stores where door-busters were long gone.

One of the hot selling items at in Greenbelt was PlayStation 3, according to manager JoAnne King. The first 20 went for $199, after that the price went back up to $249.99. Televisions were a hot item too. When Patch checked Friday evening, King reported they were all sold— other than store displays.

At Best Buy in College Park, one of the hot door-busters, which sold out, was a 42-inch Sharp TV which had gone for $200, according to supervisor Chase Esteves.

At the AT&T store in Greenway Shopping Center in Greenbelt, the iPhone 4S, going for its normal price of $199.99, was the bestselling item, according to manager Melvin Foster.

King said close to 270 people were already in line when Kmart opened its doors on Black Friday. She reported that electronics and jewelry were the store’s bestsellers. Esteves didn’t have an exact number, as he was not working when Best Buy’s doors opened at midnight, after Thanksgiving. He couldn't give an official answer, but he said colleagues had told him that the line had gone all the way down to Hard Times Café.

Some stores’ Black Friday deals extend through the weekend. At Greenbelt’s Kmart, King confirmed that the Xbox 360 Kinect is $99.99 instead of its normal 149.99 price through Saturday.

At AT&T, Foster said that throughout the weekend, Greenbelt's store will offer three phones for free with a two-year contract: The Samsung Focus Flash, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G. 

Each stores hot-ticket items were sold out.

As of Friday evening, Best Buy manager Tai Ngo said he thought Best Buy's Black Friday sales were going well and reported them as being better even than last year.

She said things went well this year because there were no fights.

Last year, the crowd seemed ready to fight and had many arguments, King said. This year Kmart came up with a strategy and gave numbers out to people standing in line. In addition, those who tried to butt ahead, were told to get back in line, King explained, reporting it worked.

King was pleased with Black Friday at Kmart, stating sales were as good as last year’s, but her satisfaction with the day was based on customer behavior as well.