AUGUSTA — Managers from stores around Augusta reported long lines but no incidents as the holiday shopping season began just after midnight on Black Friday.

Target and Kohl’s estimated more than 1,500 people were in line when their doors opened. Tricia Carr, store manager at Kohl’s at the Marketplace at Augusta, said her fifth Black Friday at this location has gone smoothly.

“I was surprised, but it was a good surprise to see how many people were out there at midnight,” Carr said. “It was nice to see that people are interested in us.”

David Fernandez, an Ohio resident visiting relatives in Waterville, went to Kohl’s with his wife for a jacket and other clothes but left with some electronics, too.

“To be honest, I wasn’t aware that Kohl’s sold TVs and PlayStations,” Fernandez said. “Who knew you could get underwear and video games just a few aisles from each other?”

Inside Wal-Mart, a short drive in the Marketplace from Kohl’s, manager Gerald Tyler, working his 18th Black Friday, said he received compliments from some customers that this was “most open the store has ever been.”

Tyler and asset protection manager Sheldon Parise said it took nine minutes for the line to stop moving at both sets of doors after opening at 12:01 a.m. According to the pair, a $199 HP laptop and an RCA tablet were the first items to disappear off the shelves, both within the first 30 minutes.

“In all my years here, I would rank this one pretty high,” Tyler said. “I expected there to be a decrease in traffic because of online shopping, but we had some things in store more available.”

Kmart and Best Buy, both located one interstate highway exit south of the Marketplace, had heavy traffic when their doors opened.

Kmart’s Ryan Colgan said customers expected the store to be busy but were “polite and generally pleasant.” The big items at his store were a $3 can opener, a toaster and mixer and a 12-foot trampoline for $149 that sold out by 12:30 a.m.

None of these stores reported anybody camping outside, which has happened in the past and is fairly common across the country. Best Buy had “several hundred people at midnight lined up around the corner,” said supervisor Sam Hewey. “Everyone was very well behaved and patient,” Hewey said.

One person who left Best Buy disappointed was Sarah Hoser, 42, who brought her 10-year-old along for his first Black Friday shopping experience.

“We were hoping to score one of the 49″ Toshiba TVs, but by the time we got to the store, they were gone,” the new Augusta resident said. “I think next year I may stick to shopping online.”

Despite the door-buster bargains at stores around Augusta, some people waited until later in the day to avoid the morning rush. Around noon, the electronics section at Wal-Mart was packed with customers going through more than 100 DVDs and Blu-rays for under $10.

“I stayed up too late last night watching football, so I chose to sleep in and head out after lunch,” said Augusta’s Tom Benson, shopping at Wal-Mart with his two young sons. “We’ll find some good deals here (in electronics) and in some other spots too.”

The increase in customers brought an increase in staff. Tyler said Wal-Mart has at least double the number of workers for Black Friday; and at Kohl’s, Carr said she uses four times her normal staff.

Big-box stores weren’t the only spots to get more customer traffic. Restaurants in the Marketplace, including Chipotle, had loads of people entering their doors as soon as they opened. At Chipotle, one employee said that because the diners were spaced out, it didn’t seem crowded, but they were doing more business than normal.

According to a preliminary survey by the National Retail Federation, 73.5 percent of the approximately 135.8 million shoppers who planned to shop this weekend would do so on Black Friday. Last year, 68.2 percent planned to shop on Black Friday. The group said millennials especially like the long holiday shopping weekend. More than 80 percent of the 18-to-35-year-olds surveyed said they would be shopping on Black Friday.

The next “Star Wars” movie opens Dec. 18, and the toys associated with the franchise moved up to the No. 2 spot on the retail federation’s Top Toys List, behind longtime favorite Legos. Barbie returned to the top of the list for girls, knocking toys from Disney’s “Frozen” down a peg.

“We came looking for some specific Star Wars toys and walked out with everything on our list,” Benson said as he donated spare change to the Salvation Army. “I guess The Force was with us.”

Jason Pafundi — 621-5663

jpafundi@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ

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