Community Corner

Black Friday Shoppers Pack Willowbrook Mall Thanksgiving Night

People line up outside Abercrombie & Fitch and other stores hours before they opened at midnight.

Willowbrook Mall was packed with shoppers on Thanksgiving night hours before Black Friday.

Hundreds of people were lined up inside the mall waiting for stores to open at midnight.

Dozens of shoppers waited on the second floor for Abercrombie & Fitch to open.

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“It’s fun. You hang out with friends and other people who are here who just want to get a jump start on our shopping,” Ferdando Ortiz said. “There’s a comrade between all of us.”

This is the second consecutive year the mall has opened at midnight. Sears opened at 8 p.m. Retailers have been opening earlier for Black Friday in recent years. This year, many national retailers, including Walmart and Toys “R” Us opened their stories on Thanksgiving. There has been some backlash from both consumers and employees about working on Thanksgiving.

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“I think it’s fine,” Judy Davis said. “If people want to keep their jobs or if businesses want to stay open, then being open isn’t such a bad thing.”

People walked around the mall late Thursday night, sipped coffee, and mapped out their plans for what stores they were going to visit first.

“We had Thanksgiving dinner together and we just want to get our holiday shopping done,” said Hector Smith, who was at the mall with his wife, Gloria. “It just gets crazier as we get closer to Christmas. Get it done early so you’re not dealing with the insanity later.”


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