SHOPPERS OUT EARLY

Despite the rainy weather, hundreds of early-bird bargain hunters formed long lines in front of shopping outlets throughout the north country Friday, waiting for a series of pre-dawn store openings.

"I've been here for 44 hours," said Joshua A. Foster, 28, who stood at the very front of the line at Best Buy, Salmon Run Mall, before its doors opened at 5 a.m.

Mr. Foster, a professional photographer originally from Hollister, Calif., said he came out at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to make sure he was the first one to walk into Best Buy on Black Friday. He had to leave at 4 p.m. Thursday at the store's request, but came back at midnight to start the official line.

"Essentially, I wanted to come out here to get an opportunity to get some stuff to give to a needy family this Christmas," he said.

Mr. Foster said he also was getting some electronics for his family.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, often called Black Friday, usually is the biggest sales day of the season for most retailers. On this day, shopping outlets across the nation offer huge discounts to attract a mass of competitive shoppers looking for the best bang for their buck.

"My crazy friends got me up at 2 o'clock this morning," said Marian Eivins, Adams Center, who came to pick up some toys for her grandchildren at Target in Watertown.

She said that this was her third Black Friday early-morning shopping experience and that she is coming back next year to do some "smart shopping."

Of course, the early bird doesn't always get the worm, especially on the craziest shopping day of the year.

"At the beginning, it was chaos," said Lorrie L. Somerville, Brockville, Ontario, who waited in line in the rain Friday morning for the doors to open at the Walmart Supercenter on outer Arsenal Street in Watertown.

Mrs. Somerville drove about 55 miles from Brockville to Watertown on Thursday just to do some Black Friday shopping. But by the time she got to the toy aisle just a few minutes after 5 a.m., the toys she wanted for her 2-year-old son were sold out.

"Everything I wanted, I didn't get," she said.

However, Mrs. Somerville did manage to get a cheap Blu-ray player and some other toys for a good price and said she will come back next year to dive into the madness again.

Pamela J. Brossoit, 45, Boston, Mass., who was visiting her husband's sister in Calcium, stood in front of Target starting at 4 a.m. in an effort to buy a 40-inch HDTV that was on sale.

"I came here for a television, but they were all sold out. So now I'm picking a different TV and I'm going to spend double the money," she said.

Jessica H. Smith, 27, Watertown, had better luck. She got in line at Target about five minutes before the opening but somehow got that TV.

"I'm done for the day," she said, while leaving the store about 6:20 a.m. "I'm tired."

By the time the St. Lawrence Centre mall in Massena opened at 6 a.m., Bill Burch and his family had been waiting in line for more than six hours.

They were at the head of a Black Friday line that snaked around the outside of the mall. Mr. Burch, who lives near Lake George, said he was in Massena to visit his daughter "and I got roped in" to standing in the line beginning at 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

The first 500 shoppers who came through the mall's front entrance between 6 and 7 a.m. received a flier that listed special offers and had a holiday symbol that could earn prizes for shoppers. The stack of fliers was gone about 20 minutes after the doors opened.

The Burches didn't know how much shopping they'd actually do once they got inside the warmer confines of the mall.

"We'll probably look around," daughter Amanda L. Burch said.

And then, she said, "we're going to go home and sleep."

Johnson Newspapers writer Bob Beckstead contributed to this report.