Black Friday deals attract shoppers to Fort Wayne stores, global pandemic or not

Dozens of Fort Wayne residents lined up outside the Walmart on Coldwater Road Friday morning.

They anxiously anticipated the doors opening at 5 a.m.

To snag Black Friday deals.

Many said they weren't going to allow COVID-19 to stop them from participating in this holiday tradition.

Hundreds of people in fort wayne braved the dark and cold early this morning for a chance at early deals ... fox 55's nico pennisi was there as the doors opened and spoke to shoppers about why they chose to come out despite the pandemic.

"customers didn't let covid-19 stop them from taking advantage of black friday deals.

I'm outside the walmart on coldwater where dozens of customers anxiously awaited the doors to open at 5 am.

"jennifer neal is the first person in line this morning.

She goes black friday shopping every year and has managed to score some big ticket items in years prior.

"i don't remember the exact details, but i've gotten a couple of tvs in the years past."neal is here today buying baking supplies.

She says she doesn't mind waiting outside in the cold before sunrise because she was already wide awake.

"i don't know, i just couldn't sleep.

I'm not a good sleeper."she and roughly 100 eager shoppers wore masks and social distanced while waiting in line to comply with cdc guidelines.

Melody kirkpatrick says she wouldn't dream of missing it, global pandemic or not."oh it's tradition!

We have to come no matter what.

Even if it's just for one thing."not everyone in line has participated before.

For urijah cain, this is unchartered waters.

"it's my first black friday and i'm excited to be here."he says excited and nervous about his first time."i don't know what they're going to be having, like what sales they'll be having.

It's exciting to see what i can buy!"security told me it was one of the tamest black fridays they'd ever seen.

At walmart i'm nico pennisi, fox 55 news.

If you didn't get a chance to participate in black friday deals today...make sure to support local businesses tomorrow during shop small saturdays.

So what is shop small saturdays.its something the downtown improvement district here in fort wayne says helps those owners who put in so much effort into our community.

This years shop small saturday is a bit different than normal.

This year will feature four saturdays instead of just one like past years.the purpose is to alleviate some of the crowds the area could have seen when it was only one saturday.and to continue to help small businesses during the covid 19 pandemic.

This year thats really important many of them aren't able to offer the sales they're used to because they're behind in the year so this is a great way for the public to keep these stores open so next year they can have their salesthis will start this saturday and