Shoppers Brave Elements for Big Deals

People looking for good deals this holiday season took a page from the current political climate.

Call it “Occupy Best Buy.”

Drawn by the chance to purchase products at steep discounts – such as a 42-inch television at $199.99 – people began lining up outside the electronics retailer as early as last Friday in cities across the country.

In San Bernardino, Isaac Shepherd of Rialto took his spot at the front of the line about 2 p.m. Saturday. And there he has been, complete with tent and canopy ever since.

The man, who is currently collecting unemployment, has a long list of items that he hopes to get when the store opens at midnight Friday morning, including the TV, an Xbox and guitar.

“If you’re going to come, you’ve got to come out here big,” he said, joined at the front of line by Daniel McLeish, of Loma Linda, and his uncle John Shepherd, of Ontario. “You’ve got to get the most bang for your buck.”

This is Isaac’s second straight year camping out. He was farther back in the line last year. But this year, he called the store trying to find out if anyone was already in line. When the store clerk said yes, he hustled down to the store, to find out that no, he was first. He wasn’t alone long.

“I got my tent set up, and then one, two, three others were set up behind me just like that,” he said. “Gradually it made it all the away around the corner.”

And around the corner was Angel Gutierrez, a student at Redlands East Valley. With school out for the week, he joined in the line Monday. He and his party are waiting for the chance to score one of the TVs.

“I’ve been here most of the time,” he said. “I go home for about two hours a day and take a shower. But then I’m right back here, talking to people.”

His grandfather, Rialto’s Joe Diaz, took time this week to join his grandson.

“I just look at it like we’re camping out,” Diaz said, complete with a little water when the sprinklers came on underneath their tent.

There were about 30 campsites set up Wednesday night at 9 p.m., as the campers were getting ready for the homestretch to the store’s opening – which is five hours earlier than past years.

The store, for its part, has been welcoming to the shoppers. Port-a-potties have been set up in the back of the building, and they allowed the tents to be set up.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, long known as the busiest shopping day of the year, signifies the start of the Christmas commerce season. Black Friday, both in brick and mortar stores and on the Internet, has become a half-billion dollar industry.

But Comscore, a company that measures shopping habits in the U.S., said 2010 records show that $648 million of Black Friday's total sales came from online shopping, up 9% from the $595 million spent online during Black Friday 2009.

But data from ShopperTrak showed spending at bricks and mortar outlets was pretty much the same as last year, rising just 0.3%, and traffic rose just 2.2%.

"The reality is we have a deal driven consumer in 2010 and that consumer responded to some of the earliest deep discounts we've even seen for the holidays,” ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said in an interview last year.

Cindy Rhodes contributed to this report.