Part of the pre-dawn crowd at the Best Buy in the Town of Wallkill, early Friday morning

WALLKILL – Retailers are hoping that Black Friday this year will translate into hoards of shoppers spending tons of money.

Many stores in shopping malls in the Hudson Valley opened at midnight Friday morning, while others opened at 4 a.m. and still others at 5 a.m.  Regardless of the hour, people lines up outside in hopes of getting their hands on that special toy, computer, electronic game or piece of jewelry.

Customers arrived early at the Best Buy store at the Galleria at Crystal Run in the Town of Wallkill.

Kurt Taylor, 41, of Pine Bush began waiting at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Day and stayed overnight in order to take advantage of the sales.  “It’s well worth the effort to get a laptop cheap.” said Taylor.  In addition to the laptop, Taylor was at the store to purchase a Gorman GPS for his daughter and an X-box.

Other customers like Donna Osuba of Middletown, who had just arrived at 5 a.m., chose to be patient and wait until lines died down before attempting to get into the store.  “I think we’ve got a while and a lot of sales so if we get one then we get one.” 

Ari Arutsun of Callicoon held the true holiday spirit arriving late to purchase a washer and dryer but not really worried if he didn’t get one on Friday.  Well aware of the possibility of the store running out, Arutsun proclaimed that there should be “peace in the world.”