A few early birds shop deals on Thanksgiving

A few early birds clutching newspapers and steaming cups of coffee spent Thanksgiving morning in the parking lot of Sears in Massapequa, waiting for the store to open and counting themselves lucky to be missing the chaos of Black Friday.

At 6:30 a.m., a handful of people sat in their cars in a dark and otherwise vacant parking lot, waiting for the store's opening time of 7 a.m.

Among them was Joanna Friedman, 42, of Massapequa, who planned to buy a Sony PlayStation.

"I'm glad to see there's not a line of 200 people here," Friedman said. "That's the reason I thought I'd do it today."

Jim Chadwick said he's not entirely comfortable with the idea of department stores being open on Thanksgiving, but the sales on laptops and cameras were too good to resist.

"I don't believe in it, but it's about the deal," said Chadwick, 43, of Massapequa. "In this economy, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make the children happy."

Many people who shopped at Sears on Turkey Day said they aimed to get in and get out, focusing solely on one or two items before getting home to their families.

Peter Parks, 55, of Copiague, planned to buy a lawn mower and a power drill for his son before returning home to have Thanksgiving breakfast with his wife.

While Parks said the early morning shopping wont affect his holiday plans, he admitted to feeling guilty shopping on the holiday itself.

"I don't believe in them actually opening here today, but I'm here for the deals," he said.

Parks and his wife even discussed his discomfort over dinner Wednesday night, he said, but ultimately he decided to go.

"I'm going with the times," he said. "Everybody else is going out."