Anna Banks beamed with a victorious smile after passing a checkout counter at Wal-Mart Supercenter at 5:15 a.m. this morning -- and why not?

She had just snagged a $1,000 42-inch Polaroid HDTV for $600 at the Hanford store -- one of the much-coveted Black Friday prize deals.

Banks, 27, of Lemoore said she got in line at 2:30 a.m. When the store opened at 5 a.m., she was swallowed by the stampede but managed to maneuver her way through the aisles to get to the electronics section in time.

"Oh my God, people were literally hitting me with their carts," Banks said. "I'm really glad. I was going to be really mad if I got beat."

Behind Banks were endless streams of shoppers pushing overflowing carts across the store.

Hundreds of early-bird shoppers in Kings County joined the crack-of-dawn shopping madness this morning, eager to snag deals on everything from electronics to apparel. They mobbed stores, clogged streets and created parking jams, as they flocked back and forth between the Wal-Mart-Target shopping centers and the Hanford Mall.

At the mall, people braved traffic to navigate the maze of stores, some of which opened as early as 4 a.m.

At the strip malls, people struggled to find a parking space. Others power-walked, sprinted and staggered between two department stores.

Donna Brown of Hanford could be found walking away from Target toward Wal-Mart.

"I didn't want to go to Target. I wanted to go to Wal-Mart, but the parking lot was so full, I had to park far away," said Brown, who dashed to a jam-packed food section once she entered Wal-Mart.

Black Friday -- a time-honored post-turkey tradition -- marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. Stores extend their hours and offer deals on a wide range of merchandise.

In this year's slumping economy, Black Friday bargains promised to be even deeper and wider -- even deeper than the discounts consumers have been enjoying since early this month. With disposable income being tight for many Americans, analysts are expecting bleak holiday sales for retailers.

But this morning's turnout in Hanford indicated people weren't going to let the economy spoil their Black Friday shopping excitement.

In the early morning cold, Eddie Limon, 20, of Lemoore and his 11-year-old sister Kassandra huddled in front of RadioShack around 5:10 a.m. waiting for the store to open at 6 a.m.

They had gotten in line for an MP3 player at Wal-Mart, but by the time they arrived, the line was so long that they gave up and headed to RadioShack, which offered the same $50 deal on MP3 players.

For Eddie Limon, it wasn't the first purchase of the day.

"I didn't go to sleep because I went to the shopping outlet in Tulare," Limon said.

His sister said, "He went out at 11 p.m. and came back at 3 a.m., watched TV and came here with me."

In Tulare, Limon dropped $200 in a few minutes for shirts and sweaters.

"Tulare was crazy. People were camping out there," he said. "It took us 45 minutes just to pay for our stuff."

Like many other shoppers, the Limon siblings came with a big list of things they want to buy at different stores.

"We still have $150-200 in our budget," Limon said. "We'll go to Gottschalks to buy some sweaters after this. I like sweaters as Christmas gifts."

His sister, her teeth chattering, added, "I need some shoes ... But I'm cold."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2429.

(Nov. 28, 2008)