Move over, Black Friday. Crowds of Thanksgiving Day shoppers got a head start on holiday purchases for what is becoming a new tradition.
"It was kind of crazy, nerve-wrecking," said Loke Barroga of Makakilo after exiting the Toys R Us in Aiea. "I didn’t know where everything was."
She and her boyfriend Buddah Kahihikola wrapped up their shopping in about 30 minutes after the store opened and planned to continue shopping elsewhere.
The couple loaded a pink Power Wheels Barbie Cadillac Escalade into the back of their SUV, filling the back half of the vehicle.
Barroga said she bought the miniature electric vehicle — which usually sells for about $420 — for $299. Her receipt said she saved $180 on the shopping excursion.
For Barroga the 5 p.m. opening worked out because her family had brunch together for Thanksgiving.
"It worked out with my Black Friday schedule," she said. "I didn’t even plan it."
About 800 shoppers entered Toys R Us within 30 minutes after the store opened, said store manager David Palmer.
"It’s the same familiar faces (as last year)," Palmer said of the shoppers who lined up early. "They’re smart shoppers. The people that you see in line have done their homework."
He said the store will have hundreds of items on sale Friday and Saturday with new door-buster sales starting at 7 a.m. Friday.
"We’re running a three-day ad on hundreds of other items," he said.
But the frenzy of Thanksgiving Day shopping seems to have declined from previous years as more stores opened earlier, perhaps splitting some of the customer traffic.
More than six years ago, before Palmer began working at the toy store, about 3,000 people would wait in a line that wrapped around the building, with some arriving the night before Thanksgiving. At the former Circuit City at Pearlridge Center, where Palmer also used to work, the line would be about 5,000 deep, he said.
"You don’t see that anywhere anymore because it’s all about the consumers changing their shopping behaviors," he said.
Shoppers are migrating to the Internet, and to respond to that demand, Toys R Us scheduled a crew this year just to fill local online orders.
Toys R Us also offered pre-Black Friday deals for rewards card members online.
"It’s all in an effort to not only capture the market, but make it a better shopping experience for the customer," Palmer said.
And so far signs show it will be a good shopping season.
"We’ve got traffic and we’ve got product, and therefore it’s going to translate into a very good season," he said.
The first shopper in line at Toys R Us was Patty Chism, who was with her family after arriving at about 9 a.m. Thanksgiving Day.
The family played football and befriended another group waiting beside them.
"Besides having family time … we met new friends," Chism said. "Who would have thought you would meet some great people here?"
Keiki DeLizo, 19, of Ewa Beach passed the time on Instagram on her phone while reclining in the bed of her pickup.
She said she was waiting to buy numerous boxes of steeply discounted diapers for her baby brother and a toy ATV for about half price.
"It’s like Black Thursday. It’s supposed to be Black Friday. I don’t get it," she said, explaining that her family prepared their Thanksgiving meal Wednesday night and cooked it in the morning for an early celebration.
"It was almost like breakfast," she said. "As soon as we were done eating, everybody left (to go shopping)."
She said she wished the stores would open later in the night like they used to.
"It gives you more time with your family, and I like to eat twice before I go to Black Friday, not Thursday," she said.
She said some friends ate their Thanksgiving meal Wednesday to make the early shopping hours.
Lines also formed outside Macy’s at Pearlridge before the store opened at 6 p.m.
Vanessa Gilo of Aiea said she was missing dinner with her sister to buy a gift for her mother at Macy’s, although she had an early lunch with her parents.
She said co-workers were missing some of the early sales because they were having Thanksgiving dinner.
"The day after Thanksgiving should actually be the day after Thanksgiving — 5 in the morning, like how it used to be," she said.
At the Aiea Best Buy, Allen Kiyokane, 44, showed up about two hours before the 5 p.m. opening to stand in line for a pair of headphones.
"I lucked out," he said. "I was maybe the 20th person."
Being near the front of the line, he received a voucher for a 50-inch flat-screen TV for $200.
He didn’t know the original price of the TV, but bought it because he knew he would regret passing up such a good deal later.
"It was kind of exciting and fun all at the same time," he said. "I enjoyed it."
