As Christmas music hits the ear and holiday sales stickers catch the eye, shoppers grab their carts to score some holiday sales.
Garry Van Zee made a weekend out of finding the perfect gifts for his family. The Highmore resident traveled to Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving and stuck around to do his fair share of shopping.
"The biggest crowd was probably Friday, Black Friday. But it really wasn't that bad. And the traffic wasn't that bad either," Van Zee said.
And those working at Lewis on Black Friday would agree. They saw a consistent crowd, not a mad rush most would expect.
"We always have the door busters and that spikes your sales right away in the morning. We had a good line and a good start and really it was a strong day all the way through," 41st and Minnesota Lewis store manager Bob Deaton said.
Deaton says the big ticket items this year are electronics, furniture and snow blowers.
And while Lewis didn't open Thanksgiving night like some other stores around, they say it didn't affect their sales and customers day they didn't seem to mind.
"We opted not to do a Thursday night opening. It was decided that we were going to hold to giving our employees an opportunity to have Thanksgiving evening, at least, with their families before we got started with the weekend on Friday," Deaton said.
"It was fine as long as we knew the facts and we knew when their hours were," Van Zee said.
And with this weekend's holiday sales up, Deaton says that indicates strong sales all the way through until Christmas.
"We have a little bit longer than normal shopping season this year. Judging from how it started off this weekend, I think we are going to have a really, really good year," Deaton said.
And for Van Zee, he'll shop until he has everything to fulfill his family's wish list.
And Deaton says since his store has seen consistent crowds over Thanksgiving weekend, that's a predictor, that this entire holiday season should have steady shopping crowds.
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