Even with the fact that a lot of stores opened on Thanksgiving, there were still plenty of people who waited for the traditional Black Friday shopping to get out to the malls and shopping centers.
Managers at some of the local malls say the fact that more retailers opened up Thursday or Thursday night, may have helped to more evenly distribute some of the crowds, but the parking lots in Henrietta, Victor , Greece and Pittsford were still quite full by the time the sun rose Friday.
At Eastview Mall, manager Mike Kauffman says it's too early to say whether opening on Thanksgiving will give a big boost in sales for the stores that did that.
"It probably is going to spread out the buying, a little bit over the weekend, I think those stores that opened up Thursday were trying to get kind of a jump on the weekend, and probably come Monday or Tuesday, that's when we'll have a better idea as to how that strategy worked for them."
The manager of Eastview Mall, Mike Wilmot, says the fact that there are fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year will probably push retailers to offer deep discounts even earlier.
"It’s sales I've never experienced, it's crazy, it's very competitive, and hopefully it will work out for the consumer, the biggest deal now is hopefully the consumer will keep coming back for the next, 25, 26 days."
The managers at the two malls are looking for sales this year overall, to be two to three percent higher than last year.
