By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM -- There was a great hunger for performance fleece Friday morning.

About 100 people, many in their teens and early 20s, lined up outside the Old Navy in Renaissance Center before the store's 3 a.m. opening. Standing in the cold with teeth chattering and feet shuffling to keep warm, they clutched the retailer's circular and eagerly waited for the deals and freebies that came with Black Friday, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year.

When the doors finally opened, the crowd rushed in, grabbed items and formed checkout lines within minutes, filling the front section of the store.

Friends Laurin Mancour and Melanie Currie, both from Durham, shop on Black Friday together every year as a matter of tradition. Both women became unemployed in the past year, and said they were focusing more on practical items Friday, like clothing.

Mancour makes a shopping list and leafs through circulars to plan their day every year. This year, the two had planned to stop by Old Navy, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Kohl's.

"I'm here because I have kids and the store is selling $5 T-shirts, so it's a good deal," said Mancour.

Another selling point for Old Navy was the earlier opening time, up from 5 a.m. last year, which made it convenient for shoppers who were also planning to head to department stores and discount chains.

Other retailers also pushed up their opening times for Black Friday and concurrently ran online specials this year, banking on the draw of earlier and longer hours and online shopping from Thanksgiving Day on to trigger interest.

"We want to make it as easy as possible for families to get gifts," said Old Navy spokeswoman Kris Marubio.

Other early risers on Friday: Toys "R" Us, which opened at midnight, and smaller retailers such as Charlotte Russe, 4 a.m., and Aeropostale and RadioShack, 5:30 a.m.

In a survey of consumers, National Retail Federation found that one in 10 (10.3 percent) shoppers planned to get to stores between midnight and 3 a.m., 28.8 percent of people were to head out between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., and 28.2 percent, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Interestingly, 18- to 34-year-olds were expected to comprise the majority of early shoppers, with 18.3 percent planning to head out between midnight and 3 a.m., possibly because they never went to bed in the first place Thanksgiving night, NRF speculated.

This demographic played well into Old Navy's strategy, as many in the 3 a.m. crowd were young people, both men and women, some of whom simply wanted to experience the rush of Black Friday shopping.

Mariah Reece, 14, was accompanied by her mother, Wanda, for her first Black Friday.

"I just wanted to see what it's like," Mariah said as she draped several T-shirts and pairs of jeans on her arms.

"I'm 52, and I know better," Wanda Reece said with a laugh.

Northgate spokeswoman Paula Harris said the earlier openings generated more traffic than in 2008.

"There is a lot of competition out there," Harris said. "Because of the economy, [retailers] are trying to stimulate people coming in early. Our merchants are anxious to ring up those cash registers."

Walmart and Best Buy, the two Black Friday behemoths, stood their ground with the usual 5 a.m. opening in New Hope Commons.

J.C. Penney likewise opened at the usual time, 4 a.m., and offered its traditional gift item to the first customers -- a small Mickey Mouse snowglobe.

But there, as well, the initial rush of customers exceeded last year's. The store in The Streets at Southpoint was flooded within minutes with shoppers rushing up the escalators for first dibs on appliances and other home goods.

Patrick Anderson, general manager of Southpoint, said traffic looked to be up by 1 percent to 2 percent this Black Friday from 2008, driven largely by deals from retailers.

"Any retailer that was running offers today had very good results," Anderson said. "The customers are here for the deals. We had some good traffic last year, but this year, people know what they're here to shop for."