America gives thanks for Black Friday early birds

Bargain shoppers, braving rain or freezing weather, crowded America's stores and shopping centres last night to get their hands on deals from TVs to toys on the traditional Black Friday.

The busiest shopping day of the year is so called because it is when retail stores achieve sufficient sales to take them out of the "red" and into the "black", the accounting term for profit. In a bid to grab shoppers earlier on the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, a number of stores including Old Navy, Toys R Us and Sears opened late on Thanksgiving day, which fell on Thursday.

Toys R Us, which drew in shoppers with 50 per cent discounts on such toys as Buzz Lightyear and Barbies, was counting on getting an extra boost by opening 24 hours straight, with the 10pm start. Its flagship store in Times Square drew 1,500 shoppers, said chief executive Jerry Storch.

"Where there are bargains, there are people looking to gobble them up," said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst for market research firm NPD.

Patricia Lopez, 32, a receptionist from Queens, New York, was in line at Toys R Us in Times Square on Thursday night. "I thought, good, we'll come here and I won't have to go tomorrow." But she still planned to get up at six to hit more sales yesterday. She added: "The economy got people a little scared so they started to save. But I think I feel a little better this year than last. I had just started with my job."

Diehards started lining up at the Target department store on Chicago's North side at 10pm, and by the time doors opened at 4am yesterday, the line was almost 600 people deep.