LOCUST GROVE, Ga. — Shoppers flocked to Tanger Outlets in Locust Grove an hour before the doors opened at 6 a.m., all hoping to be first in line for Black Friday doorbuster deals.
“If you’re not first, you’re last,” Neely South of Thomaston, who arrived with her sister, daughters and nieces before 5 a.m., joked to Channel 2′s Bryan Mims.
She and her sister have shopped together on Black Friday for 30 years, making the pilgrimage to malls and big boxes from McDonough to Macon. “We did it with my parents and my grandmother, and they passed the tradition on to our kids,” she said. “It’s just the fun of being together, of the hunt of finding the one treasured item your family wants.”
They make an entire day of Black Friday, often shopping well into the evening. And for shoppers who love the thrill of finding the best bargains, it’s time to shine.
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For others, it’s a chance to spend a day with friends.
“Well, I enjoy it because it’s an all-girls day,” Brandy Spillers said. “We leave all the kids, all husbands at home, and the girls just go out and have fun just shopping together. We’re on no time schedule to get back home.”
Charlotte Glover of Covington brought her two grown daughters, arriving an hour before doors opened. In this age when you can shop online, she said going to physical stores on Black Friday is a time-honored joy.
“I shop till I drop,” Glover told Channel 2 Action News. “I love it, I love it, and we’ll go to brunch.”
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Wanda Cole and her husband, Charles, of Forest Park also wouldn’t miss this great commercial ritual of the season.
“Oh heck, it’s fun, it’s great to get out,” Cole said. “You still have that Christmas tradition of getting out. We love it.”
Rhonda Melancon is working on Black Friday at Vera Bradley. She looks forward to the happy hubbub of Black Friday.
“I get to be like one of Santa’s little elves,” Melancon said. “You know, I’m helping people do their Christmas shopping.”
For some shoppers, 2024 was different than previous Black Fridays because they were back at the stores. During previous years, they stopped shopping on Black Friday in person because store employees were at work on Thanksgiving.
“When stores started opening on Thursday and took their employees away from their families, I stopped giving them my money,” one shopper told Mims. “The stores weren’t open on Thursday anymore, so if they’re not open, they’re giving their employees the break they need to be with their families, so we came back.”
A representative from Tanger Outlets said the parking lots were already 80% full by 8:15 a.m.
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