Shopping for fun amid the bargains

They bought shoes and more shoes, but really they came for the excitement.

"To be honest, the sales are not that great," said Kaveen Singh, who now lives in Potomac, Md., but used to live in Manhasset and returned to the area for the holiday. "It's the people, the energy and seeing other people here. It's like there are other people who are crazy like me."

Singh and her mother, Vicky Singh, came out to the Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City with friends, beginning their shopping shortly after midnight. By 5 a.m., they stood amid numerous bags — many of them filled with shoes — from several different stores. Although the group purchased gifts for relatives, they did a fair amount of shopping for themselves.

"I am really impressed, but I expected better deals," said Ishita Khosla, 18, of New Delhi, India. A friend of the Singh's, she is a college freshman studying in California and said this is her first Black Friday. "I heard so much about this from my friends. Maybe they exaggerated a little bit."