Black Friday kicks off US holiday shopping

Some retailers, like Best Buy Co Inc are keeping Black Friday on Friday, waiting until midnight to open.

At a Best Buy in Orlando, people had camped out in tents for days waiting for the doors to open.

Gabriel Esteves, 33, a self-employed car audio installer, waited in line with a bag of Cheetos and a Coke while his brother and sister went to their homes for Thanksgiving feasts with their families.

They told me to take a break and go to the house, but today's the worst day to leave the line. People come and cut in line, said Esteves, who got in line Monday to buy some small electronics and a 50-inch television.

Best Buy, which is trying to stem falling sales under new CEO Hubert Joly, is one of the retailers in the spotlight this season.

At some stores, workers were not so happy to have early openings encroach on their Thanksgiving holiday. A petition asking Target to save Thanksgiving had 371,606 supporters as of Thursday afternoon.

Still, at a Target on Chicago's northwest Side, the first person waiting in line Thursday night was someone who worked at the store, Elsa Acevedo, 46, who finished her shift at 430 am and lined up at about 2.30 pm to buy a 50-inch Westinghouse television.

As for the earlier opening, I just think it takes people away from their families, she said. But she added that a midnight opening also pulled workers away from Thanksgiving celebrations because they had to

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