If 300 people, likely still digesting turkey, are lined up outside a store at 5 a.m. on a cold November morning, blitz sale bills clutched firmly in hand, then it must be Black Friday.

The dubiously named, strangely celebrated opening salvo to the Christmas shopping season began very early Friday morning across the nation. Throngs of customers stormed Wal-Marts, Targets, Best Buys and malls across America with money as good as spent on tantalizing holiday deals.

Southern Illinois was no different, where in Carbondale, people began waiting outside local establishments, like Best Buy and Kohl's, as early as 3 a.m.

Herrin resident Jeff Fish was one of the early risers, who by 9 a.m. could sum up his thoughts on the trip in a single sentence: "I'd rather be at home."

Despite carting a sack full of gifts in one hand and a Christmas tree in the other from the Marion Target late Friday morning, Fish was hardly feeling the Yule Tide spirit loading it all into his van.

Asked if Black Friday bargaining hunting gets him in the mood for the Christmas season, he said, "Me? No. It takes it away."

Fish hadn't had the best of luck so far. A two-hour wait around 6 a.m. outside the Carbondale Staples yielded disappointing personal results, he said.

"I was like 25th in line, and they were sold out of what I wanted by the time I got into the store," Fish said.

Sell-outs were likely a common thing Friday. Customers were snatching up items left and right, some capitalizing on the big deals stores were offering and others mere impulse buys - another regular phenomenon of Black Friday.

Tara Knacksteet, assistant manager of the Marion Target said the store had logged 2,000 transactions by 9 a.m., having opened its doors just three hours earlier.

Even though traffic was heavy, Knacksteet said they were light on problems, i.e. customer fights and out-of-control crowds.

"Everything's gone very well," she said. "We had very good crowd control this morning. We had folks lined up ready to get everyone inside and security people here ready to head up any problems."

No major problems were reported Friday in the region from heavy shopping traffic. Aside from the occasional rude customer, things seemed to go smoothly as large retailers' profits gradually rose out of the red.

Not everyone out on Black Friday needed an early start to get the items they sought.

Standing at the cashier's register of the Carbondale Best Buy, with a very long, snaking line behind them, Rick and Mary Liggett of Champaign were not only in town visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, they partook in a little shopping as well.

"We've done it in the Carbondale area for the last two years; the campground and the lodge at Giant City pull us down here," Rick said.

The Liggetts' purchase for the morning - the ever-popular iPod, a device Rick said his son has been wanting to the point of "drooling" for quite a while.

It was the first and only stop the Liggetts planned to make in Carbondale for the day, but with four shopping weeks left until Christmas it probably won't be the last time the Liggetts or many shoppers find themselves turning over more money at a cash register.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

(618) 529-5454 ext. 5090