An estimated 36 million people are planning to hit the stores for some early Black Friday shopping sometime during the Thanksgiving weekend.
And that includes quite a few people who have already cashed in on the savings.
Shoppers are already snatching up the bargains for holiday shopping, with a number of retailers opening their doors on Thanksgiving to jump-start sales.
Some die-hard shoppers already began camping out to get the best deals.
At the Best Buy on Colonial, customers have been lined up since Wednesday to take advantage of the sales that are inside. Around 400 people were in line Thursday evening. Most of them gave up Thanksgiving with their families to set up tents here to try to be first or as close to first as they could get to ensure they would get to go home with some of the season’s hottest items.
Customers say the big items this year are a $199 television and a tablet. Many of the shoppers say they had no regrets about passing up on Thanksgiving dinners, which might be a sign that camping out to shop is turning into a social phenomenon.
"It's fun. You get to meet people and get gifts and things of that nature, so it's just the whole concept. I’ve done it quite a few times [for] about four or five years," said shopper Mark Smith.
The Best Buy opened after employees had a chance to spend time with their families, but will stay open until 1 a.m. and then close for a short period and to start all over again Friday morning.
At the Orlando Premium Outlets, the Youshak family plotted out their Thanksgiving plans, and they started while many turkeys were still basting in the oven.
“Outlets, eating, outlets, eating,” said Dawn Youshak.
“I like Polo a lot, I’m going to head over there now. Some really good deals,” added Trevor Youshak.
Both Orlando's Premium Outlet locations opened at 10 a.m. and will stay open for 35 hours straight.
Just hours into the marathon sale, parking spaces were at a premium, and shoppers had their hands full of bags.
Even though the stores out won't close until late on Black Friday, some of them are offering special sales just today on Thanksgiving and then will have new sales tomorrow.
Of course some out-of-towners had good cause to be out shopping on Thanksgiving, and were thankful the stores were open.
“We sort of got stuck shopping being that my clothes got left behind,” said Siobhan Klass.
The Petruccione family in town for their son's soccer tournament said they had their turkey last week.
“We’re having bourbon chicken, I think it’s vegetable delight,” said Isabella Petruccione.
And even though they said they still plan to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, they were enjoying a day of shopping where it seemed almost everything was close to 50 percent off.
"I don’t even know why it’s called Black Friday, most of them are having deals today," added Marianne Petruccione.
Those deals continuing until the outlets finally close at 11 p.m. Friday.