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Black Friday shopping hot at Oakbrook Center, despite falling temperatures
Friends Emily Guido of Hinsdale, Jonathan Teresczenko of LaGrange Park, Chance Orrick of Burr Ridge, and Jason Fisher of LaGrange Park look over some of the sale merchandise Thanksgiving night at Sears in Oakbrook Center. | Chuck Fieldman—Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 28, 2013 1:58AM
OAK BROOK — While official hours at Oakbrook Center for the day after Thanksgiving traditional start of the Christmas shopping season didn’t start until 7 a.m. Friday, Sears opened at 8 p.m. Thursday, and 15 other stores opened at midnight.
Adiel DiBartolomeo, 19, of Riverside, showed up at 9:30 p.m. Thursday and was the first in line for a 7 a.m. Friday opening of H&M clothing store.
“I came last year and wasn’t prepared because it was really cold,” DiBartolomeo said. “This time, I brought a warm jacket and a chair.”
DiBartolomeo said he shops regularly at H&M and came early for Black Friday because of a store promotion for which the first 100 people in line were to receive scratch-off tickets offering the possibility of large discounts.
Brian Anzures, 17, of Berkeley, arrived at 5 p.m. Thursday to be first in line for a midnight opening of the Microsoft store. His motivation was to save $200 on a computer.
“I thought there would be a huge line here when I got here,” he said. “I don’t mind coming early. It’s a fun experience, and it’s fun to talk to the other people in line.”
Friends Madi Hart, 13, of La Grange, and Haley Christian, 15, of Western Springs took a very novel approach for Black Friday shopping, as they waited in line behind about 150 people to get into Hollister Co. at midnight to buy clothing.
The girls showed up in the costumes they wore for Halloween — Hart was a flying squirrel, and Christian was a duck.
“We want to cause a diversion so we can grab something we want in the store,” Hart offered. “That might work, but we thought it would just be fun to do this.”
Arlene Penaflorida was happy to actually be able to do some shopping after heading out Thursday night for an early start to Black Friday.
The Westchester resident headed first to Walmart on Illinois 83 in Villa Park, but quickly left without shopping and made her way to Sears at Oakbrook Center about 9 p.m.
“We went to Walmart, but we couldn’t even find a place to park; it was just crazy over there,” Penaflorida said. “We thought we’d head over to Oak Brook, and it’s a lot better here.”
Tonia Reed of Bellwood did some clothes shopping Thursday night at Sears with her daughters, Mariah, 13, and Maia, 15.
“I came for Sears; they have some good deals on clothes,” Reed said. “I’ve done Black Friday shopping before. You really have to get mentally prepared for it because it can really get crazy, but it wasn’t bad here. It’s crowded, but not crazy.”
