America's biggest shopping day of the year kicks off even earlier this year as retailers take advantage of extended opening hours.
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Shoppers move through a Best Buy store in Naples, Florida. Black Friday, the day following
Thanksgiving Day, is traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US.
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Many big stores decided to open early, at midnight on Thanksgiving.
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Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year for many retailers.
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People make purchases at the Black Thursday sale at the Toys'R'Us store in Times Square,
New York.
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Shoppers enter a Kmart store in Indiana as it opens.
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Assistant manager Charles Johnson hands out vouchers to the first people in the queue.
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Bargain hunters wait to get into Macy's department store in New York at midnight.
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People crowd the first floor of the department store.
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People wait in line to get their hands on a deal at a Target store.
Gallery: US Black Friday Sales Scramble
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Some of the UK's biggest retailers are cashing in on a US tradition, slashing their prices ahead of Christmas.
The traditional
Thanksgiving shopping frenzy ate into the day itself this year with
stores throwing open their doors on Thursday evening.
Black Friday - a key date in the two-month holiday season retail
splurge - is the chance for stores across the US to turn a profit for
the whole year.Americans have grown more comfortable shopping online, putting pressure on traditional retailers who can make up to 40% of their annual revenue in November and December.
In what has been dubbed "Gray Thursday", Target opened its doors at 9pm, three hours earlier than last year. Sears, which did not open on Thanksgiving last year, opened at 8pm.
When Macy's opened its doors in New York at midnight, 11,000 shoppers showed up.
For some the lure of the potential bargains was enough to make them miss out on Thanksgiving dinner altogether.
Michael Prothero, 19, and his friend Kenny Fullenlove, 20 started camping out on Monday night outside a Best Buy store in Ohio, which was scheduled to open at midnight.
"Better safe than sorry," Mr Prothero said.
However not everyone was happy with the extended Thanksgiving hours.
"It shows that the companies are not valuing their workers. They're looking to their workers to squeeze out more profits," complained Carrie Gleason, director of the union-backed pressure group Retail Action Project.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer which owns Asda in the UK, has been one of the biggest targets of protests against holiday hours.
Many of the its stores open 24 hours, but the company was offering early bird specials, once were reserved for Black Friday, at 8pm on Thanksgiving instead.
OUR Walmart, which includes disgruntled former and current workers, planned demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores on Black Friday.
But retailers say they are giving shoppers what they want.
Kathee Tesija from Target said its 9pm opening struck "a perfect balance" for its customers.
Source:Skynews