It’s was a dizzying dash for deep discounts!
Hordes of free-spending, sharp elbowed consumers swarmed stores across the city yesterday, digging for deals on everything from down comforters to cameras.
Deals could be found everywhere from SoHo to Sheepshead Bay as shoppers bought with reckless abandon. Some even managed to pull off marathon spending sprees lasting 12 hours or more.
“We’ve been shopping since last night,” said Diana Gonzalez, 26, of Richmond Hill. She and her husband, William Soto, 24, said they started at a Toys ‘R’ Us in Rego Park around 9:30 p.m. after Thanksgiving dinner and were still going at it yesterday at the Queens Place Mall.
“We don’t play. We filled up the car,” Gonzalez said.
Soto shockingly admitted the couple used “aggressive” shopping tactics, which included elbowing their way to the front of checkout lines or skipping past other shoppers waiting to enter stores.
“We had to,” he said, estimating that they had probably saved around $2,000 yesterday on Black Friday deals — but spent $2,000 on toys, linens, clothes and gadgets from stores ranging from Macy’s to Victoria’s Secret.
Shoppers nearly came to blows at H&M’s Herald Square location during an unexpected 4 a.m. rush, described by witnesses as a “stampede,” when doors opened an hour earlier than planned.
At the European-style appeal discounter, customers had lined up starting Thursday night hoping to snag one of the store’s promotional scratch-off tickets that the retailer was handing out only to the first 100 shoppers.
The scratch-off prizes ranged from $10 to $300 for shoppers to use in the store.
The mad dash turned into a miracle on 34th Street for Vivian Rau, 16, from Brooklyn who only had to shell out $3.80 of her own money for bag loads of T-shirts, sweaters and hoodies after her scratch-off coupon turned out to be worth $100.
“I am so lucky,” said Rau, who had arrived at the store with her sister, Alex, 19, around 3:45 a.m. “We ended up buying more than we normally would, which is great.”
Also in Herald Square, Macy’s was so mobbed, the retailer had to devote several dozen staffers to directing traffic inside.
“I always wait for Black Friday,” said Jersey City’s Chholdim Lama, 52 who dropped $900 on down comforters, but claimed to have saved about $1,500 on his purchases. “I cleaned up.”
At Bloomingdale’s, a line had already wrapped around the block from the Third Avenue entrance down 59th Street long before the doors opened at 8 a.m.
“I’ve been here since 2 a.m.,” said Yuya Sato, 23, who was first in line at Bloomingdale’s. “I went to Macy’s first, then here. I plan on buying a lot today.”
Consumers suffered through a similarly long line at Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square.
“We tried to get in last night, but the line was out the door,” said Tracy Putnam, 40, of Memphis, Tenn., who was clutching a bag full of Beyblade toys.
About 70 percent of all shoppers waited in line to score Black Friday deals, with 61 percent of shoppers starting their sprees on Thanksgiving, according to a poll conducted by Brad’s Deals, a 2-million-subscriber Web site for shopping deals and advice.
Post reporter Candace Amos hit the stores for Black Friday bargains, and pulled together a great outfit:
Banana Republic “Perfect Hoop” earrings
Regularly $29.50
Sale Price $17.70
Savings $11.80 / 40%
Marc by Marc Jacobs multi-colored Merino wool cardigan
Regularly $298
Sale Price $151.98
Savings $146.02 / 49%
Banana Republic gray wool sweater
Regularly $59.50
Sale Price $35.70
Savings $23.80 / 40%
Cole Haan “Brooke” flap tote
Regularly $348
Sale Price $243.60
Savings $104.40 / 30%
Levi’s “Curve ID” demi-curve jeans
Regularly $68.00
Sale Price $47.60
Savings $20.40 / 30%
Plenty by Tracy Reese boots
Regularly $225
Sale Price $134.39
Savings $90.61 / 40%
Total Normal price $1,028
Total Sale Price $630.97
SAVINGS $397.03/39%
Additional reporting by Helen Freund, James Covert, Hannah Rappleye and Antonio Antenucci