While the calendar read Thursday, many local residents spent the last few hours of the day celebrating Black Friday. One of the biggest shopping days of the year has seeped into the previous day, and so Thursday night, Toys ’R’ Us in Nanuet opened at 8 p.m. and had a line wrapped around the side of its building. A crowd of well more than 100 people lined up outside of Target at the Palisades Center, which opened at 9 p.m.
The first on line was Michael Nordstrom, who got online at 11 a.m. Thursday to ensure he would get on the televisions stocked at Target. He was joined at about 5 p.m. by his niece, Sofia Tassello, 10, his nephew, Robert Tassello III, 12, and their mother, Stephanie Tassello, of Orangeburg. The Tassello’s also purchased a television, along with an air mattress for sleepovers and a few other items.
While the line for Target was long, employees let people into the store in waves of about 25, and those groups were escorted into the store. Once inside, employees and police officers made sure things didn’t get out of control.
“It’s pretty subdued,” Nordstrom said. “There’s a bunch of cops standing around, and they yell at you if you start running, so it’s not too bad.”
There were also plenty of long lines at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack Thursday night and Friday morning. The longest line at the mall was for Best Buy, which stretched along much of the ground floor of the mall, wrapping around corners near the Cheesecake Factory. Best Buy opened at midnight and by 1:30 a.m. Friday, the end of the line had just made it to the front of the store.
