News

N.H. stores open early on Thanksgiving day ahead of Black Friday sales

SALEM, N.H. — Black Friday shopping began early at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H. on Thursday afternoon.

Stores at the mall opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, just hours after most families had begun carving into their turkeys.

The so-called "blue laws" prohibit stores in Massachusetts from opening before midnight on Thanksgiving Day, but to the antsy shopper's delight, there's no such law in New Hampshire.

Crowds of excited shoppers were able to get a head start on their holiday purchases well before Black Friday began.

"I got a pocketbook that was a $60 dollar pocketbook for $2.36," said Sandra Patnaude, a shopper at Rockingham Park.

Patnaude was just one of the hundreds of other shoppers who finished their Thanksgiving dinner early to enjoy shopping at great prices.

Many of these shoppers say the deals are wll worth it, and that now shopping has become a part of their Thanksgiving tradition.

Although the mall opened at 6 p.m., other stores, such as J.C. Penney, were open hours beforehand. By 2 p.m. their doors were open and they plan to keep it that way straight through Black Friday.

"We get a lot of traffic on Thanksgiving Day. It'll lull down a little bit after midnight, it's still busy. And then it'll really ramp up as we get to 6, 7 o'clock in the morning, through most of Friday, so it's an intense two days, but it's so exciting," said Tony Sicurella, the J.C. Penney General Manager

Even though J.C. Penney will be open straight through until Friday night at 10 p.m., the rest of the Mall at Rockingham Park will close at 1 a.m. and re-open at 6 a.m. for those usual Black Friday sales.