Shoppers with credit cards, checks and cash in hand were outearly this morning to take advantage of one of the biggest shoppingdays of the year – dubbed by retailers as “Black Friday.”

Katrina Hines, of Brookhaven, called her friend Theresa Humphreyat 4:30 this morning in order to have a shopping companion for theday. Like most shoppers they started out at Wal-Mart Supercenter,which began selling items at advertised sale prices at 5 a.m.

Hines said she was particularly interested in a DVD player and aprinter. At 6:30 a.m., she and Humphrey were at Harvey’sElectronics Radio Shack where she was looking for a GO-Phone forher 5-year-old son.

“I wasn’t going anywhere this year,” Humphrey said. “Until shecalled.”

Humphrey was browsing through sale papers and making a shoppingplan as she and Hines made their way from store to store. Theirnext stop was Perkins Ace Hardware where Humphrey had her eye on adigital camcorder and portable DVD player.

Clint Rounsaville and his mother Carolyn Rounsaville were alsoout early.

“We got out at 4:30,” Clint Rounsaville said.

He wanted to get to Wal-Mart early to shop for his two children.Tops on his list of purchases were a Game Boy and a Dora theExplorer Car.

Rounsaville said the early morning shopping experience wasn’t sobad, even though others had the same early morning idea as hedid.

“It was pretty crowded,” he said. “We had to stand in line for awhile.”

Rickey O’Quinn and Rebecca Andrews, both of Franklin County,also got out early to start their day.

The couple got to Wal-Mart around 3 a.m. to start theirshopping. They, too, were interested in the Dora Explorer toys.After loading their vehicle they were heading off to several otherstores.

April Thomas, of Wesson, said she got up at 5 a.m. to start hershopping.

She had an air hockey table on her list of things to buy. Shealong with several other relatives planned stops at severalBrookhaven stores before heading back to Wesson.

“I’m doing most of my Christmas shopping today,” Thomassaid.

Tammy Merrill and a large group of her family were out at 2:30a.m. to begin their shopping. Between the five adults, theypurchased five 20-inch televisions and five V-Smiles games, alongwith a collection of other items.

“We’ve loaded all the cars one time already,” Merrill said.”This is our second load.”

Merrill’s sister Sheila Eschete and her daughter Trystan werealso along for the shopping trip. They all planned to shop untilaround lunch time, since they had the day off.

Kevin Harvey, Radio Shack manager, said he estimated over 50people were standing in line when he opened his doors at 6 a.m.

“It’s been a crazy morning,” he said.

Harvey said items advertised in his sale paper will be on sale”until everything is gone.”

Most of the early morning shoppers seemed to have started theirmornings at either Freds or Wal-Mart and then ventured to the otherstores that began opening their doors at 6 and 7 a.m.

Ramona Campbell said she saw the big line outside Radio Shackearly this morning and decided to take a peak inside.

“There were lots of people outside,” she said. “I needed to goin and see what was on sale.”