It's Black Friday - Ready, Set, Shop
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Ready, set, shop.
Thousands hit the malls early on Friday in search of Black Friday bargains. For some the hunt actually began Thursday night when stores like J.C. Penney, Macy's, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Brandsmart USA opened their doors in the early evening.
Several malls including Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater and Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise also opened their doors to shoppers on Thanksgiving.
Early Friday, Naomi Torres told CBS4's Vanessa Borge she's has been at the Dolphin Mall for about 12 hours.
"I just asked what time it was and someone told me it was 7 a.m. and I'm like 'What, I've been here since 7 p.m. (Thursday)'," said Torres.
Torres said the deals were too good not to pull an all-nighter. She said some stores are giving additional discounts on top of discounts.
Rashawn Tudor came all the way from Barbados to buy sneakers on sale.
"Was it good sales? What did you get them for," asked Borge.
"This pair was $140 and the other one was $110," replied Tudor who added he save about $200 in total.
So are the so-called Black Friday bargains worth the hassle of dealing with the crowds.
It depends on how you look at it. The whole point of dealing with the long lines are the deep discounts, with some reaching up to 70 percent off.
Many shoppers arrived with wheeled luggage bags, or bought them at the mall. Bags for their bags. Andrew Rahaman had three of them.
"It's a little inconvenient or heavy to lift bags," said Rahaman, who comes each year from Trinidad. "So for about 16 years I've been coming here to shop and we've always worked with luggage. The rule!"
Sawgrass Mills Mall, which will be open for 27-and-a-half continuous hours, will close at 9:30 pm on Friday.
The Dolphin Mall will be open until 11 p.m Friday.
And let's not forget - Black Friday bargains can also be found online. Shoppers in the U.S. spent more than a billion dollars online between midnight and 5 p.m. Thursday - a 22-percent increase over last year.
Analysts say as much as 20-percent of holiday shopping will be done over the Thanksgiving weekend.
