Video: Black Friday Shoppers Hit Tupelo Stores In Waves

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TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – Eight hours into Black Friday and Tupelo Police Chief Tony Carleton has a birds eye view of the shopping hotspots.

“We like to get up and monitor traffic to be able to follow things a little close,” Chief Carleton said.

Overall, everything was calm. Roads leading to the Mall at Barnes Crossing and nearby stores were clear, traffic was moving along at a normal pace.

“We’re seeing a lot of dot com orders, a lot of people did their shopping early this year and didn’t want to deal with the Black Friday rush,” said Chris Sanders of Best Buy.

It was a steady stream of customers at Best Buy

“It’s kind of weird seeing all these people in Tupelo, this time of day, out shopping,” observed Shopper Anna Grace Lawrence.

But it was far from chaotic as shoppers were searching for good deals.

“There’s some movies for two bucks, we kind of just, didn’t find one we really liked, we’re still looking though,” said Shopper Carter Clayton.

Over at the Mall at Barnes Crossing, retailers were bracing for a second wave of shoppers. For the first time, the entire mall Kicked off Black Friday at midnight.

“We did have a lull maybe about six, maybe where that first wave of people went home but people are back and they are in abundance,” said Marketing Director Cindy Childs.

For Makesha Coleman, this was her second trip to the mall, in one day.

You were out here at midnight? “I was.” How was it? “Crazy, very crazy,” Coleman said.

Typically Black Friday brings more people into a store than any other day in the year. But the largest day in terms of purchases occurs the Saturday before Christmas. It’s not rocket science retailers understand the next 30 days are crucial to a store’s bottom line.