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Black Friday: The frenzy after the feast at ‘I Love Saipan’
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- Saipan residents flood the I Love Saipan store as doors opened at 2am for Black Friday. (Thomas Manglona II)
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- Customers wait for food stalls to open just after midnight at I Love Saipan in Garapan. (Thomas Manglona II)
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- I Love Saipan employees pose for a photo minutes before opening the doors for the annual Black Friday sale. (Thomas Manglona II)
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- Customers push, shove, and sprint their way to merchandise seconds after the doors of I Love Saipan were opened for Black Friday. (Thomas Manglona II)
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- Customers crowd the I Love Saipan first floor to get discounted store items on Black Friday. (Thomas Manglona II)
“I’m just going to take whatever I find nice and put it in my basket and run right away!” the first customer in line said. “I also came to see some chaos.”
Another Black Friday shopper said she followed her sister to the store to block other shoppers from grabbing items she wanted. “Last year I saved sixty bucks,” she told Saipan Tribune.
One family of four even came with a strategy for when the doors opened. “We are going to run in there and I’ll have my kids grab all the items they can see and get in line. After that, one of them will try it on to see if it fits, and then the others will block other people.”
The doors opened at 2am as customers pushed, shoved, and sprinted their way to the merchandise ranging from 30 to 70 percent off.
Within minutes, clothes were cleared off the store’s shelves, hangers were on the ground, and the post dividing the lines had already been knocked down.
“Everyone is so excited and the bottom line is that they want to get to what they want to buy. Last year, we had a lot of people pushing and shoving each other and our employees,” said Edward Duenas, I Love Saipan general manager. “Preparation for this is yearlong.”
Last week’s sale marked the store’s 5th Black Friday opening.
