Despite it pouring down rain, thousands of Ohio Valley residents traveled from both near and far early Friday morning to flock to The Highlands in Triadelphia to shop for the best Black Friday deals. Cabela’s, JC Penney, Target, and Old Navy were just a few of the stores that were offering deals.

A sea of umbrellas of various sizes and colors were seen being held by the shoppers who braved the cold, rainy, weather in order to shop the best deals during the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Shoppers were lined up outside of both Cabela’s and Target and they were more than ready to take on the task of finding the best gifts for everyone on their holiday shopping list.

This year’s Black Friday at The Highlands wasn’t the mad dash often seen in other places. Shoppers entered the stores at the Highlands in an orderly fashion. No arguments broke out over this year’s hottest toys, electronics, and other items that people were searching for.

Black Friday not only gives people the opportunity to shop the best deals but it also allows people to find the right gifts for everyone before the holiday season.

“Getting good deals at JC Penney is what brought me here to shop today on Black Friday,” said Lori Nowkowski from Bridgeport, Ohio, who was shopping at JC Penney. “We usually stop here when we go Black Friday Shopping. Today I’m here to do some early Christmas shopping because I have an entire list so I hope to find a lot of great things.”

Justin Gismondi, who was shopping at Cabela’s said, he was no rookie to Black Friday.

“We do it every year,” he said. “Every year we come to Cabela’s and we can’t miss out on it and then we stop at the outlets afterward. I guess it’s just kind of tradition, we like the deals, but more so the events. Today we’re not looking for anything specific but it’s tradition and we like to do it with each other.”

Shopper Jamie Stauffer said the gifts that some stores were offering helped entice him to brave the early morning and dreary weather.

“Well it’s kind of interesting, my brother has a Cabela’s card and on Wednesday he got a text that Cabela’s was giving away gift cards to the first 250 people who get here,” Stauffer said. “We wanted to come to Cabela’s pretty soon anyways so we decided to come up here this morning. We are looking to buy some ammo and maybe some odds and ends for this hunting season.”

Tyler Harto Cabela’s operation, candy and gifts manager, said the diversity of products in the store is what he thinks makes it such a popular Black Friday destination. It’s not just hunting and camping equipment, he said, but clothing, shoes, and food items as well.

“There are a multitude of things that bring people to Cabela’s to shop on Black Friday. We gave out gift cards ranging from $10 to $500 which will be loaded on December 1 for their last-minute Christmas purchases. I think it’s just the most diverse shopping base that you can have,” said Harto.

Harto also touted big savings as an attraction, such as deep discounts on firearms and 50% off of some sonar products.

“You can get a lot of great products at a good price. We used to have about 5,000 people come to shop here on Black Friday but this year we had about 2,000 people lined up outside and all of our gift cards that were handed out are gone so this year we had a pretty great turnout,” said Harto.

Frank Walsh has been a manager with JC Penney for 27 years and at the Highlands store for the last seven. He said that, even after the early prizes are gone, there are still plenty of reasons to stick around and shop.

“Everybody likes to get out and shop and come here early,” Walsh said. “A lot of people get here at 5 a.m. and we have a limited amount of coupons that we are handing out this morning until they are gone. But we also have a great selection of merchandise and we have deals in every corner of the store and people love to get out and shop. There are thousands of people that come to JC Penney at the Highlands to shop on Black Friday and we’ve already had about 300 people come through.”

The shops at the Highlands were hoping for solid customer turnouts throughout the day Friday.

Shopping had become a little complicated in the past couple of years with COVID-19 making some wary of putting themselves among large throngs of shoppers. Old Navy general manager Tamsen Mull said she thought the lure of matching family pajamas and 60% discounts elsewhere in the store would attract customers.

“Last year during Black Friday we saw about 2,500 customers but this year we are hoping to see even more or about the same amount that visited our store last year,” said Mull.