ST. PETERSBURG
They could have been at home, cozy and warm, sleeping off their gravy-slathered traditions and dreaming of pie.
Instead, the hundreds of pre-Black Friday shoppers who huddled outside Best Buy on Thanksgiving Day were shivering and waiting, some for more than 24 hours, to participate in the year's finest display of American consumerism.
They endured for different reasons — a 50-inch Panasonic flat-screen TV marked down by $350, a Wii U bundle package for $359.97, cheap movies and discounted iPads — but shared this mantra: We're here, sure, but we don't like it.
In recent years, the hysteria surrounding the traditional Black Friday shopping day has bled into Thanksgiving Day. This year, the holiday push began the day after Halloween, but that didn't seem to diminish the marketing oomph aimed at turkey day.
In Tampa Bay, a swath of retail stores opened their doors Thursday evening, forcing those who wanted to take advantage of the best deals to abandon the dinner table and commit to hours of long lines and chilly temperatures.
Cheyenne Harms, 20, set up camp outside Best Buy at 1 p.m. Wednesday to secure her place as customer No. 1. The apple of her eye? That $350-off TV. She and her fiancé, Raymond LeBlanc, 26, crafted their game plan nearly two weeks ago. They spent Thanksgiving as a family, with their 3-month-old son, last weekend and will meet his family for dinner next weekend. The TV was worth it.
On Thursday afternoon, LeBlanc's family, accomplices in their quest for LED wonder, delivered the couple plates heaped with Thanksgiving staples: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and carrots. Huddled for warmth inside their tent, they ate and envisioned playing their new Wii on their new TV later that night. And no, they wouldn't be venturing out again on the real Black Friday.
"We'll be out of money by then," Harms said. "It's throwing a lot of people off."
Wrapped around the building and tailing into the parking lot, the back of the line was brought up by St. Petersburg grandmother Vickie Rizzo. When her own children were young and before the Black Friday craze got too crazy, Rizzo said, she would wake early and hit several stores on her way to work. But now, the hype is too much to handle.
With hopes of snagging a few gifts for her grandchildren, Rizzo begrudgingly wandered out to Best Buy after celebrating Thanksgiving with her family. But, she said, she would much rather have been resting at home.
"My back hurts, I've been cooking all day, I'm full," Rizzo said.
She wanted a nap. And pie.
The deals drew her out, though she wishes the stores would stick to opening on Black Friday.
"There is no more Black Friday," she said. "Why would people come out tomorrow when all the good stuff is gone today?"
Toward the front of the line, 45-year-old Daphney Ivory said she was frustrated that more and more stores were opening on Thanksgiving Day.
"I hope they bring it back to Black Friday," Ivory said. "Yes, I'm out here, but it's not fair."
She said she has friends who work in retail and hates to see them forced away from their families and friends on a holiday.
Across the street and inside a bustling Toys 'R' Us, employee Stacey Karras, 56, merrily directed excited parents behind Christmas gift-filled shopping carts toward check-out lanes and the Lincoln Log aisle.
She was working Thanksgiving Day, but didn't mind at all. She said she used it as her excuse to dig into all the best dishes, straight from the oven, before anyone else.
"You get the spirit," she cheered. "I just love it. It's a blast."
At 11 p.m., when the mayhem elsewhere would just be kicking up, she said she would head home. And eat some pie.
Contact Katie Mettler at kmettler@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8913. Follow her @kemettler.