By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Elaine Maldonado had a plan.
Her grandmother got in line Thursday night to secure a place. Then Maldonado arrived at about 11:15 p.m. Thursday to take turns standing in front of the main en-trance of Ashtabula Towne Square until the doors opened at 6 a.m.
“We are here to look at the specials,” Maldonado said at 5:45 a.m., with her family shivering all around her.
The strategy worked, but would she do it again?
“It depends,” she said. “It’s cold.”
Maldonado, 21, wasn’t the only area resident to lose sleep over Black Friday, the day when retailers entice shoppers with cutthroat prices. Norma Martinez, 58, of Jefferson, slept in her truck in the parking lot to be one of the first five people through the doors of the mall, which gave away coupons ranging from $10 to $100 off merchandise to the first 200 people walking through the doors.
About 300 people lined the sidewalk at 6 a.m. from the main entrance of Ashtabula Towne Square’s doors to the J.C. Penney Co. store, including Gordan Sharp, 29, of Williamsfield, and his friends Craig and Jennifer Welsh, also of Williamsfield. The group brought chairs and sat at the entrance all night, dressed in their winter jackets and covered in blankets.
When asked how they did it, Sharp said, “We monitored our drinking, and we waited for J.C. Penney’s to open at 4 a.m. to use the restrooms.”
When the doors opened, cheering shoppers rushed in for specific items, many to the Game Stop for video games.
Kmart shoppers waited in long snaking lines at 6 a.m. for deals on electronics.
Nearby, Burger King opened at 4 a.m. to accommodate early-bird shoppers. Employees said the restaurant enjoyed a booming breakfast business, which didn’t slow down until shortly before 7 a.m.
A drive past McDonald’s drive-through on East Prospect shortly afterward showed a line winding all around the restaurant.
