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Retailers and Shoppers Prepare for Black Friday

Karina Puikkonen
Shoppers set up camp outside a Best Buy waiting for Black Friday sales

Utah consumers and retailers are getting ready for the biggest shopping weekend of the year.  Some stores are opening as early as tomorrow afternoon running through the night into Black Friday.

Some stores like Toys R Us open as early as 5 pm Thursday while Costco and other large retailers aren’t scheduled to open until 9 am on Friday.  Niki Copeland is a Team Leader at the Downtown Target store in Salt Lake City opening at 8 pm Thursday.  She says their preparation began weeks ago and focused on popular sales items.

"Making sure that we find out what our great two-day ad busters are, and making sure we have them ready to go and that they are signed correctly and out so the guests can find them," Copeland says.

Jennifer Jeppson of Salt Lake City headed into Target to just do some Thanksgiving shopping.  She says she’s waiting until early Friday morning to buy the deals she’s looking for. 

"So I’m just planning on scouting out what exactly what I want, going in, getting out, and going home," she says. 

Austin Novak, another veteran shopper, actually set up a temporary home outside his favorite electronics retailer in order to walk right in at opening time. 

"This is my third consecutive year camping out at Best Buy for Black Friday," Novak says.

Novak runs a generator that powers a flat screen TV he and friend Derrick Sanders set up under a canopy next to their tent.  Novak says they’ve learned a thing or two over the years and the canopy is a critical addition to their campsite. 

"Where we have the TV and everything set up with the gazebo, you need to have sides up or else the wind comes in and it gets really cold," he says.

Novak and Sanders say they enjoy watching movies and playing video games with friends while they wait and the actual door busting deals are just a perk to the whole experience.  It’s no wonder these two are the first in line at this electronics store.  

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