TAMPA, Fla. — While big doorbuster sales and the scenes of people rushing through the doors of major retailers at midnight are a thing of the past, Black Friday still brought shoppers out well before sunrise in the Tampa Bay area.

Jarron Ritchie, Manager of Bass Pro Shops, said 493 people were waiting in line before the doors opened at 5 a.m. on Friday morning.

That’s significantly more than the amount of people they had lined up in 2023, Ritchie said.

Many of them were hoping to be one of the first 250 people in line so they could snag a free gift card. Others went as part of tradition in hopes of getting some discounted big-ticket items.

The first people in line started camping out around 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night.

“This is certainly an experience,” Nicholas Ricciotti said. “I had fun… definitely coming next year.”

With matching shirts, Anna Chorba and her two sisters joined the line around 4:40 a.m. Friday. Chorba says her sister Wendy comes in from Mississippi every year so the three of them can continue their 30-year tradition. The sister’s family motto is “make a memory.”

“Her husband brings her to Florida every year and every year he says this might be my last trip because we’re getting older and it’s getting harder,” Chorba said, pointing at her younger sister. “But I tell her there’s a plane… go take it!”

Rhonda Hess and her two adult daughters were also dressed up and waiting in line. Rhonda says she started taking each of her girls Black Friday shopping when they were 15, as a rite of passage of sorts.

“When you turn 15, Christmas kind of changes,” she said. “So that’s when they start joining me.”

Daughter Julia Hess says it’s not about the deals as much as it is the time with her mom.

“Just the tradition, it’s just something we’ve always looked forward to waking up early and getting out there and just being together the whole day,” she said.