Black Friday shopping draws hundreds

Hours before sunrise, Culpeper residents were out in force this morning to kick off the start of the holiday shopping season.

By far, the morning’s largest crowd of shoppers was at Target, where about 300 people were in a line that snaked around to the rear of the building well ahead of the store’s 5 a.m. opening time. Jen Phillips and Valerie Ward were first in line. “We didn’t have good luck at Toys R Us,” Ward said.

Phillips said they both planned to snag electronics — video game systems and music players.

Target manager Lisa Schott said every store employee — about 120 people — would be working at some point during the day Friday and that things seemed calmer in Culpeper than at her former store in Waldorf, Md.

“We have the flat screen TVs already set up in carts so if someone wants one, all they have to do is push it up front.”

Over at Belk, manager Melissa Nuckles was handing out gift cards to the early shoppers. Behind her, the store was abuzz with the sound of swooshing shopping bags, laughter, chatter and ringing cell phones.

“That’s the good thing about shoppers this early,” Nuckles said. “They’re pretty chipper. You don’t get up this early unless you love shopping.”