Black Friday shoppers see pleasure where others see pain

Like a football coach preparing for a rival, Nicki Shoulders has been seriously game-planning for Black Friday -- right down to the play sheet.

The Tennessee mother of three created a master page of the stores she and her friend want to hit near Nashville, when they open, the toys and other wares they want and the special prices.

On Thanksgiving, she'll browse newspaper ads as the family prepares for dinner, making sure she didn't miss any tantalizing deals in her online research.

Crowds? Stress? Sleeplessness? Bah. She knows what she wants, and she's going to have fun getting it.

"It's just the adrenaline and the rush and the excitement," said Shoulders, 26, of Lafayette. "And we want to make sure that we're able to get what we want."

Black Friday is the day on which we've heard about a few stampedes, fights and even deaths over the years as eager shoppers pushed their ways toward cut-rate electronics or "it" toys like Cabbage Patch Kids, Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmos.
Toys R Us stores open Thanksgiving night
Holiday shoppers camp out at store
Will you sit and surf or dash for deals?
Deals on latest tech gadgets

The vast majority avoid violence, but shoppers on Black Friday -- the day-after-Thanksgiving event in which stores lure holiday shoppers with sales -- still endure huge crowds at odd hours, even though holiday deals can be found on other days in stores and online.

Up to 138 million people plan to shop in U.S. stores on Black Friday and the weekend, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation. The federation says it's not clear what percentage of U.S. holiday shoppers visit stores on Black Friday, but shoppers reported spending about $41.2 billion over 2009's Black Friday weekend. The federation forecasts that in-store retail sales for 2010's entire months of November and December will be $447.1 billion.

What compels shoppers to head into Black Friday's mad rush? For Jasmine Leisa Grimes -- who at 29 will be making her first go of it -- it's her competitiveness. It has caught up with her. The Atlanta, Georgia, resident no longer wants to miss the deals that friends were telling her they got in stores.

"I'm going to be tired from the L-tryptophan in the turkey, but so what? I'm going to treat [Black Friday] like it's my job," she said. She'll be doing heavy research Thursday before dinner, and she wasn't sure whether she and her boyfriend would have time to sleep before heading for an early opening Friday.

"He wasn't excited before, but we're talking flat-screen TVs at a fraction of the price, so he's on board," she said.

The New York native says she's not worried about wading into the masses: "I'm a New Yorker, so forget about crowds and tempers." As for the online alternative? "I feel like I wouldn't get the same deals online. I think it's an exclusive thing to be in the store at that time to get those prices," she said.