Victoria Burns, of Oxford, said she started out at a Colerain shopping center at 5 a.m. before heading to Liberty Center just before 8 a.m. Standing outside Francesca’s at Liberty Center with her husband, Rich, and their baby, Burns said it was “definitely the sales” that had her and her family shopping on Black Friday, but “we’re not really shopping for anything specific this year.”
“It’s more of like a family tradition,” Rich Burns said. “Her parents go out and everybody really just game plans on Thanksgiving and then we kind of just hit the majority of what people want.”
Liberty Center businesses that opted to open early on Friday did a brisk business, offering deep discounts and special one-of-a-kind items to lure shoppers.
Sarah Lange, store manager for Liberty Center’s Rookwood Pottery, said that to capitalize on Black Friday business, the store opened two hours earlier than usual and offered the latest item in a holiday tradition that now stretches back a past couple of years: a Fiona the Hippo ornament.
“That’s increased traffic quite a bit because everyone loves her (and) … the new ornament is signed by the artist,” Lange said.
Black Friday crowds spike business at the store by approximately 40 percent, she said.
Target reopened at 7 a.m., followed by Best Buy at 8 a.m. Kohl’s and Walmart never closed after deals started Thanksgiving night.
People braves cold temperatures to wait in line early this morning at Fairfield Twp.’s Best Buy at Bridgewater Falls, as well as the Princeton Road Menards, which saw a line that wrapped all the way to the back of the parking lot and beyond.
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