By Paul Gagnon, – Director, North American TV Research, DisplaySearch

San Diego, 4:15 am

First stop on Black Friday 2009 was Target in San Diego, Calif. at 4:15 am.  It’s quite cold (for San Diego) with temperatures in the upper 30s Fahrenheit.   The parking lot was half-full and about 400 to 500 shoppers were in line.  The front of the line had been there since 6 pm on Thanksgiving, waiting for the Westinghouse 32″ 720p for $246.

At Best Buy, around 4:30 am, there were approximately 300 people in line. The majority of the early shoppers were after laptop and desktop PC bundles.  The most popular TVs being sought were a $299 32″ 720p Dynex (Best Buy private label) and a Samsung 32″ 720p for $377.

We’ll keep blogging live during Black Friday, so stay tuned!