Wal-mart, Best Buy, Sears -- whatever store you may be targeting this Black Friday, you'll want to get a game plan before you come up against die-hard shoppers like Lakina Gray.
"I usually stay up on Thanksgiving, I don't even go to sleep," said Gray, who plans to line up at midnight.
To save you a bit of the homework we hunted down the best deals on some of the hot items this season.
Let's start with flat screen TV's.
If you don’t mind off-brand models, there's no better deal than Target's 32 inch Westinghouse LCD, according to Gottadeal.com. The $246 price tag is a few bucks less than Wal-mart's 32 inch Emerson.
But if it's brand names like Sony you crave, Wal-mart's 46 inch LCD is selling for under 800 dollars, hundreds shy of last year's price.
Play Station III is a hot door buster this year. We found the same$299.99 price tag at both Best Buy and Wal-mart, but different offerings in the bundles, so check the flyers for what suits you most.
Whether it's Garmin Nuvi's or Tom Toms, you can grab a GPS for under a hundred bucks this year, and save a hundred in the process.
And digital cameras will run you around $80 on average Friday morning.. The cheapest we found was at Wal-mart for 69, but make sure to check the pixel quality.
If it's home goods you want, you can save 55 percent on a washer and dryer at Sears, but there's only four of those door busters per store so get there early.
“Last year I believe the first lady was online the day before thanksgiving," said Sarah Shampine with Best Buy.
OK, you don't need to go that early but many retailers say they're reducing inventory by 2% this holiday season because of the recession so this year the early bird may truly be the only one getting the worm.
And the amount of inventory is being kept secret in many stores.
They've got a little sign up that says, ‘Black Friday stuff, nobody pass,’ so I haven't actually seen it," said Shampine.
So will those threats of lower inventory draw bigger crowds this year?
“It's just not worth it, I'd rather pay the extra 15 percent of whatever," said Anne Ward.
Not likely… The National Retail Federation is still predicting a 1% decline in holiday sales this season.
BLACK FRIDAY DEALS
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