05:01 PM PST on Friday, November 25, 2005

From KING5.com and Associated Press

SEATTLE - Bargain shoppers, many facing frigid temperatures, woke up before dawn Friday to snap up specials on items from cashmere sweaters to flat-screen TVs and digital music players as the holiday shopping season officially got under way.

A number of stores opened early Friday for the after-Thanksgiving sales. Some stores limited the number of people allowed into the store at one time to control customers.

There were about 400 people lined up for the 5 a.m. opening of the Best Buy store at the Southcenter mall in Tukwila.

The first shopper was Bob Johnson of Renton. He had parked his RV at the mall last night so he could take breaks from standing in line. He was rewarded this morning with a laptop computer for $379 and a desktop computer for $149.

The store controlled the demand for limited items by handing out purchase-reservation tickets to the waiting shoppers.

Extra police were called to a Wal-Mart store in Renton to help control crowds of shoppers who pushed their way into the electronics department after doors opened this morning.

The crowd pushed counters out of position as shoppers tried to be first to get a good deal on a limited supply of laptop computers.

AP

Bargain shoppers woke up before dawn and headed to the nation's malls and stores Friday, the official start of the holiday shopping season, hoping to snap up early bird specials on items from toys to digital music players.

Sleep in? What are you thinking?

Stores throughout Oregon opened at 5 a.m. to grab people who are looking for early bird specials. The Fred Meyer store in Beaverton did just that and had hundreds of people waiting outside the door.

In Gresham, if you are the first 1,000 people, at Outrageous Audio, people gave either cans of food or a $2 donation, and in return, they would get a free gift - like a video.

Around the country

Things got out of hand at a Wal-Mart store in Orlando, Fla., where a man who allegedly cut in line to get a discounted laptop computer was wrestled to the ground.

In an improving but still challenging economy, merchants seemed to be even more aggressive in wooing the big crowds from a year ago, luring them with such come-ons as free money in the form of gift cards.

For the first time, Macy's, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., was giving away a total of $1 million in gift cards to early bird shoppers. Some retailers, like J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Wal-Mart, threw open their doors earlier in a bid to keep them shopping longer in their stores.

Such incentives may have worked. Based on early reports from some retail executives, traffic and buying appeared more robust than last year, but stores need customers to keep buying throughout the season.

KING

Mad shoppers causing stampede in Grand Rapids, Mich.

At a Wal-Mart store in Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, the biggest crowds for the 5 a.m. opening were in the electronics aisles. Portable DVD players were selling for $79.86; 20-inch flat screen TVs, advertised for $129.83, were selling for $89; and the Garth Brooks limited-edition, six-disc box set was priced at $25.

Meanwhile, about 100 people lined up for the 6. a.m. opening in freezing weather outside the Super Target in Apex, N.C., about 10 miles south of Raleigh.

With a wider range of retailers, including warehouse clubs like Wal-Mart's Sam's Clubs offering early bird specials for the first time, shoppers had many options.

Retailers' spirits have improved in recent weeks amid falling gasoline prices.

Still, many shoppers are cautious. While gasoline prices have fallen, they are still high, and this winter shoppers will face higher heating bills.

Retailers are hoping that consumers won't delay their holiday shopping until the last minute, but most analysts believe consumers will procrastinate again this year.

While the day after Thanksgiving officially starts the holiday shopping season, it is no longer the busiest shopping day. Last year, it was Saturday, Dec. 18, a week before Christmas.