Dan Thompson is in Manchester, where people have already bagged some bargains. He writes:
The Black Friday sales have begun in Manchester – with shoppers queuing for hours to snap up the best deals.
Bargain hunters huddled outside Game in the city’s Arndale centre as the shop opened at 9pm tonight.
First in the queue was tourism student Lisa Ye, 19, who had been waiting for more than three hours to buy a PS4 for her little brother, Jason, at a saving of £120.
She said: “I thought there was going to be a big line so I came early and there wasn’t!”
Physics student Liam Gittins, 20, bought the same console shortly after.
He said: “I’m quite a big gamer and the PS4 was quite expensive when it came out so Black Friday has given me the opportunity to get one.
“I’m not a big fan of all the commotion but I suppose that’s what comes with big sales. This has been decent though. In America it’s crazy. There were no elbows in the face here.”
Game store manager Gary Lloyd said last year’s Black Friday sale was ‘absolute mayhem’ and he expected this year’s to be even bigger.
He added: “The whole country is more aware of it now. It was quite new last year and retailers didn’t really know what to expect.”
Lloyd said he thought the store’s best deal was £100 off an XBOX.
My colleague Julia Kollewe has put together this guide to Black friday sales in the UK – so if you’re still undecided about staying up/setting the alarm for 4am tomorrow, this might help you make up your mind.
We’re not expecting the same kind as scenes as last year, when fights broke out at 1am because most of the retailers are scaling things back a bit. The main supermarkets will only start opening from 5am on Friday, and while there has been a lot of advertising, there isn’t the same level of pre-sales hype this year.