"We had to go get blankets, and to keep it, umbrellas, to keep it from the rain," said Target shopper Dany Delcid.
The weather might have kept first-time Black Friday bargain hunters at bay, but not the pros.
"This is my sixth year doing this," said shopper Mark Torrez. "Basically, I am trying to get a laptop for school. Mine broke, and they have a Sony laptop for $399.99 and mainly that and also a Christmas gift for my mom."
Store managers we spoke with were concerned the weather would dampen the shopping spirit, but those fears quickly disappeared. Some stores even had so many shoppers in them the doors had to be closed.
"We at one point had to close our doors because we were at capacity and they stayed and waited until everybody left and were able to come in," said Sarah Alcorn with Old Navy.
Alcorn ays the crowds were steady all day. Sunshine and clear skies bought out those who did not want to get wet. We caught up Matt Renovato, who managed to save a lot of money after sunrise.
"I saved $45," he said. "I bought three items, so an average of $15 dollars an item."
And Shannon Streger says the daytime deals were fine for her.
"For $80, I got two pairs of jeans, two sweaters and my kids, Christmas pajamas, so it was totally worth it," said Black Friday shopper Shannon Streger.
But the best bargains were found early in the morning. A.J. Singleton waited in line for hours to buy a deeply discounted computer and it paid off.
"Very good deal because the computer was for $349 and the original price is like $799, so I saved about $400 bucks," he said.
The Houston Premium Outlet stores along the Northwest Freeway opened at midnight. People had to fight the traffic before they could even get into the stores. Hundreds of people were at the mall waiting for the doors to open. Among the buyers, we found people from as far away from Canada.
Just to give you an idea on how many early bird shoppers were out Friday, at 5:15am, Baybrook Mall was at 80 percent capacity. Memorial City Mall and First Colony Mall were at about 40 percent capacity. All the malls in town have stayed pretty packed all day long.
