CINCINNATI -- The hunt for the best holiday gifts at the cheapest prices ended early Friday morning for thousands of Tri-State shoppers as they braved the elements or waiting in long lines overnight to snatch one of the limited quantity products being offered by retailers.
A long line of shoppers looking for the best priced toys for Christmas waited outside a Western Hills Toys R' Us store on Glenway Avenue, since late Thursday night to be among the first in line. After the doors opened at 12 a.m., there were some reports that Cincinnati police had to be called to bring order to a disorderly line of shoppers. Some of them said an argument between several groups of shoppers got out of hand and forced the police to called for help.
There were no available reports of any arrests being made inside or outside of the store.
Sheryl Stolez of Delhi Township says she was more than happy to shiver as she waited in line because of the low prices she was expecting to get from the Toys R' Us Doorbuster sale.
Stolez tells 9News, "We are here to get some of the excellent deals for Christmas. Yeah, it's worth the wait. We're aiming to get the lowest prices on most of the stuff we're going to get for the holiday."
At the new Wal-Mart superstore in Fairfax on Red Bank Road, over a thousand people came early Friday morning, to be in the right line to get some of the doorbuster sales the chain was offering. Wal-Mart was selling a 32-inch LCD TV for $248, a blu-ray disc player for $78 and a Ninetendo DS Lite for $98.
Even with nearly all the huge stores checkout counters opening at 5 a.m. Friday, there were still long lines of customers waiting throughout the store. The electronics section in the back was particularly busy, with even a police officer stationed there to make sure customers stayed orderly.
Tim Cottingham of Evanston was among those waiting in line. A quick look at the 2 shopping carts he had contained 2 LCD TVs, a Wii game console and a number of other electronics. Cottingham got to the store just before 4 a.m. He was still waiting in line at 5:45 a.m. get to an available checkout clerk to actually buy his purchases. He says the crowd was in good spirits, and store staff was working as fast as they could.
Many retailers warn that they have severely cut back on what they have ordered. Many of the specialty items or highly prized products may be gone well before Christmas, and may not necessarily get restocked before the shopping season is over.
Although many of the deeply discounted items in sales advertisements were gone within minutes of sales starting, retailers indicate they plan to continue with other discounts throughout the next 4 weeks of the Christmas shopping season.
