By Paul Lomax and Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo Staff
UNION SQUARE — Several stores planned to open earlier than usual for their Black Friday door buster sales, and there were many eager shoppers who lined up Thursday afternoon to gobble up bargains.
Toys R Us expected to kick off its sales at 9 p.m. Macy's, coming off its 85th Annual Thanksgiving Parade, was opening at midnight as was Target and Best Buy.
Nelson Sepulveda, 28, was first in line at the Best Buy in Union Square, where he brought his chair to hunker down at 8 p.m. Wednesday night.
"I haven't slept at all," said the building superintendent from the Lower East Side. "My friends have been passing buy giving me food."
Sepulveda was waiting to buy a Sharp 42-inch LCD television on sale for $200, down from $500, and a Sony PlayStation 3, on sale for $200 from $250. The first thing he planned to do after making his purchases is play Modern Warfare 3, he said.
Damaris Malave, 23, a veterinary technician from the Bronx, had her brother, Anthony, hold her place in line at 1 a.m. Thursday before she could arrive.
She, too, planned to buy the Sharp TV and put it in her new apartment. Apart from a lamp, the television "will be the first brand new thing that goes in that apartment," she said.
There were nearly 50 people at the Union Square Best Buy by Thursday afternoon. The store was setting up 11 screens to show "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2" at 7:45 p.m. to entertain people before the midnight opening.
“We fully expect to see excited shoppers as early as midnight at stores around the country, as many holiday shoppers would rather stay up all night to take advantage of retailers’ Black Friday deals rather than set their alarm to wake up the next morning," National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
