Best Buy, too, stuck with a midnight opening.
Shoppers camped overnight in front of some stores, like the one in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. While others just stood in infamously long lines. One store in Chicago had some 6,000 people in line, many of whom were drawn by a giveaway for Ellen DeGeneres show tickets -- and a false rumor that the comedian herself would show up.
Once inside the store, customers took a beeline to the TVs and laptops. Among the most popular deals: a $180 Toshiba 40-inch HDTV (originally $420). Tablets and e-book readers were also pretty hot this year.
Although the long lines and frantic filling of shopping carts means that products with the best deals were probably long gone by midday Friday, Best Buy will continue offering deals until Saturday.
