On the morning of Friday, November 29, better known as Black Friday, roads were empty and shoppers practically non-existent. For years Black Friday was the day retail stores looked forward to making lots of money, but no longer. This year, it was different with lots of stores opening earlier and earlier. Wal-Mart, for example, was open all day on Thanksgiving. The Black Friday deals started at 6 p.m. which is even earlier than last year.

“We were extremely busy [Thursday] night,” a manager from Eddie Bauer, a clothes store in the mall, said. Eddie Bauer opened at 8 p.m. with a lot of the stores at the mall, and made money within the last four hours of the day to compare with all of Black Friday last year.

Mark Healy, the AP Psychology and AP European History teacher, went Black Friday shopping in Fredericksburg. According to Healy the shopping went smooth at first and then got frustrating.

“Some lines took a long time,” Healy said. Healy is also not a big fan of the deals. He saved $345 according to Kohls, but he doesn’t know how accurate that is.

“The deals are there to lure you into the store because all the stuff is expensive… It’s all a psychological trick,” Healy said.

However, others, like sophomore Austin Grogg, enjoy the deals that the stores offer.

“One year we saved around $400 to $500,” Grogg said. Grogg is usually an avid shopper going to big name stores like Walmart and Target for all of his Black Friday shopping.

Harrison Chicas, sophomore at Harrisonburg high, is also a fan of Black Friday deals.

“[Stores] give deals on what they can give not what you want them to give… it also will help stimulate the economy,” Chicas said.

Even though Black Friday Shopping was down it was still very eventful.