It all started just after the last of the turkey was put in the fridge and ended around the time the cold turkey sandwiches had all been gobbled up.
For thousands of Akron-area shoppers, Black Friday shopping started Thursday night and extended well into Friday evening.
Authorities report long lines snaking outside of many area retailers, but few problems.
Abbey Stith, 17, a Barberton resident, arrived at Summit Mall before midnight to work at the fragrance counter at Macy’s.
“It was fun. A lot of people are coming in,” she said.
And when her shift ended at 6 a.m., she joined in the shopping with her mother, Kristy Stith.
Wooster resident Mindy Shamp, 44, left home at 3 a.m. to go to the mall with her children, sister and nieces.
“We’re Christmas shopping. Family tradition,” Shamp said.
Their initial stop was at the Apple store, where they had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to buy a discounted iPad tablet.
By 9:45 a.m. the family’s day was far from over.
Rachel Carr, 14, said she and her family expected to get home about midnight.
“We’re really tired when we go home,” she said.
The Toys R Us store in the Montrose area was busy with a steady stream of shoppers throughout the day Friday. But it wasn’t anything like Thursday night.
Joan West, 29, of Doylestown, went to the store Thursday night to shop, but opted not to wait in a line that circled the building a couple of times.
She returned Friday morning. She missed out on the cheap diapers and wipes — they sold out — but was able to buy baby food.
“It’s kind of a little rush to get good deals,” she said, explaining why she enjoys shopping on Black Friday.
Tom and Sabrina Kerhin of Richfield also hit Toys R Us early. Tom, 57, and Sabrina, 54, felt lucky that they snatched up everything their two grandchildren wanted during visits to the toy store and Target.
The original plan was to get up at midnight and start shopping, but they opted to sleep in instead. They were thrilled with the extra sleep and the fact that they snatched up the last of one of the toys they were looking for at Target.
“I like the crowds,” Sabrina said. “But it wasn’t very crowded this year.”
Akron, Copley Township, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn and Jackson Township police all reported that shoppers behaved themselves and there had been no Black Friday-related incidents.
The Associated Press reported some unruly crowds nationally.
Near Muskegon, Mich., a teenage girl was knocked down and stepped on several times when she was caught in the rush to a sale in the electronics department at a Walmart. She suffered minor injuries.
On Thanksgiving night, a Walmart in Los Angeles brought out a crate of discounted Xboxes, and as a crowd waited for the video game players to be unwrapped, a woman fired pepper spray at the other shoppers “in order to get an advantage,” police said.
Ten people suffered cuts and bruises in the chaos, and 10 others had minor injuries from the spray, authorities said. The woman got away in the confusion. It was not clear whether she snagged an Xbox.
A robber shot a Black Friday shopper in California who refused to give up his purchases outside a Walmart store.
Police in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco, said the victim and his family were walking to their car around 1:45 a.m. when they were confronted by a group of men who demanded their purchases. When the family refused, a fight broke out, and one of the robbers pulled a gun and shot the man, said Sgt. Mike Sobek.
The victim was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
On Friday morning, police said, two women were injured and a man was charged after a fight broke out at an upstate New York Walmart. Another man was arrested in a scuffle at a jewelry counter at a Walmart in Kissimmee, Fla.
And police in the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye are coming under fire for a video posted online Friday that shows a grandfather on the floor of a Walmart store with a bloody face after police said he was caught trying to shoplift a video game.
The man, who was taken to a hospital for treatment, claimed he had put the game in his waistband so he could help his grandson, who had been knocked down by other shoppers.
A record number of shoppers are expected to take advantage of discounts of up to 70 percent this weekend. For three days starting on Black Friday, 152 million people are expected to shop, either online or in stores, an increase of about 10 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Thanksgiving weekend, particularly Black Friday, is huge for retailers. Over the past six years, Black Friday has been the biggest sales day of the year, and it is expected to keep that crown this year, though shoppers seem to be procrastinating more every year, and the fate of the holiday season is increasingly coming down to the last few days before Christmas.
Last year, the Thanksgiving shopping weekend accounted for 12.1 percent of holiday sales, according to ShopperTrak, a research firm. Black Friday made up about half of that.
ShopperTrak is expected to release sales data today on how Black Friday fared, but a better picture will emerge when major retailers report their November sales figures next Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.