Shoppers all around the Valley scored good deals on Black Friday

By Samantha Phillips | sphillips@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Thousands of Mahoning Valley shoppers braved the ice-cold winds Thursday night to go shopping for early Black Friday deals at local retailers. Black Friday marks the first day of the traditional Christmas shopping season. The online and in-store sales that go with it make it the busiest shopping day of the year.

Many Valley stores were open by 6 p.m. or earlier Thursday, just in time for people to finish their Thanksgiving dinners.

Dorothy Sargent, of Salem, spent Thursday evening shopping at Southern Park Mall, 7401 Market St., with her husband and grandson.

“I’m letting him pick out a few things for Christmas,” she said, including some clothes and shoes from Finish Line and Tilly’s.

By Thursday, she and her husband had finished most of their Christmas shopping, and they decided to finish it up on the day of the biggest sales of the year.

“It’s kind of good in a way, because you stuff yourself, and then you walk it off,” she laughed.

Best Buy, 561 Boardman Poland Road, opened at 5 p.m. Shoppers waited in a line that wrapped around the store, antsy to take advantage of doorbuster deals.

Nicole Oxley, of Boardman, and her family secured such a deal – they bought a 70-inch LED television that originally cost $999.99 for the sale price of $699.99.

“We did a lot of research on it,” she said. “We had a TV go bad. My husband and my son are into video games, so the bigger the TV, the better quality for video games.”

Oxley said she goes Black Friday shopping every year but not always on Thanksgiving.

“We’ll be back out at 5 or 6 tomorrow morning,” looking for Christmas presents and good deals, she said.

Other customers swarmed the store for its video game deals. Dean Boyd, of Boardman, was one of many shoppers to pick up a Playstation 4 Marvel’s Spiderman Console set for $199.99, down from the original price of $299.99.

Boyd said he goes Black Friday shopping with his dad and said it puts him in the Christmas spirit before December begins. The Christmas music playing over the speakers certainly set that tone.

First-time Black Friday shopper Ian Moody, of Youngstown perused blue-ray discs for the new 4K Blu-ray player he was about to buy. He waited in line outside for 45 minutes – “it’s a little cold, but you can wait it out,” he said.

Kassaundra Hazenstab, of Poland, lucked out on the $29.99 Amazon Fire doorbuster deal, which she bought for her kids.

“We are trying to get some Christmas shopping done for the kids,” she said. “We were going to get an air cooker, but they are sold out, we got here too late. We took too long to eat.”

Tickets for certain items were handed out in the line outside.

Greg Malys, of Boardman, came to Best Buy to buy a Dyson sweeper and some other useful products that were advertised. He came with his kids, who hunted for some good deals of their own. He said it’s tradition for them to come Black Friday shopping.

Alex Guy, of New Waterford, waited outside of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which opened at 6 p.m., in anticipation of getting gifts for his girlfriend and parents.

“I don’t really shop for me,” he said.

He said he just started Black Friday shopping two years ago, but it’s “definitely” worth it.

“You get a lot better deals than for regular sales,” he said.

Also waiting outside was Bernard Corinaldi, of Youngstown, with his daughter, Leaira Corinaldi.

He said he wanted to get Nike apparel for his family, and hoped to score some basketball gear for his 11-year old daughter, who is a point guard for her school’s team.

Today, he will finish shopping with the rest of his family.

“It’s a tradition for me and my family, we do it in the morning, because there is so much chaos in the night time,” he said. “We wait until morning, go to breakfast and start our shopping.”

Leira Corinaldi said she loves going shopping with her dad and added, “ Me and my dad try to get first in the line.

John Lukes, of Boardman, headed to the Southern Park Mall to find some good deals. It was his first time in 15 years going Black Friday shopping. He found some good clothing deals at Macy’s, he said.