This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Yolanda Versteeg peered over a towering blue cart filled with Pokemon cards, Crayola coloring sets, Peppa Pig dolls and Jenga games. There was just one thing missing: Fungus Amungus.
"I don't even know what that is," she said.
Nearly everything else on the seven Christmas lists from Versteeg's kids, nieces and nephews was crossed off. Next to anything left unchecked — toys that were too expensive — she wrote funny notes, like "OMG" and "He wishes."
Still, Versteeg anticipated spending about $800 for the load from Toys R Us in Murray — her first stop on Black Friday this year. Her 12-year-old son, Nick, balanced more Nerf guns on top of the haul as the two slowly steered down only the wide aisles where their cart could fit.
"We'll be done shopping today, so now I can drink the rest of the holidays," she said with a laugh.
Another perk? Virtually no lines at the check-out and no crowds throughout the store. Parking lot stalls, too, sat empty outside.
It looked much the same at other retailers across the Salt Lake Valley during what is typically one of the biggest shopping days of the year with billions of dollars spent nationwide. Target in Sandy had less than five customers waiting in each line at 11 a.m., and not all of the 24 check stands were open.
Kevin Humphries, the store's manager and a 19-year Black Friday retail veteran, said the smaller show was probably due to stores opening early on Thanksgiving, spreading the customers between two days instead of one.
"You don't get that big rush that you used to," he said, noting that at its peak the Target location saw about 400 people. The mayhem of busier years with their brawls and stampedes was not part of the experience.
The majority of the traffic gathered in the toy and tech departments where couples looked at TVs and picked over a small selection of leftover movies. A lone copy of "How to Train Your Dragon" sat on the otherwise empty bottom shelf of one stand. Shoppers navigating through the network of carts jokingly called it "crazy town."
Upon seeing her savings of $94 after buying clothes and two booster seats, one shopper declared: "We're going to go home and tell our husbands what we saved, not what we spent."
The big ticket item this year at Target was the Nintendo Classic, a throwback to an older video game system, which Humphries said sold out first.
Toys R Us Supervisor Adam Jensen said all the Black Friday craze at his store felt more like "controlled chaos" or "tornado surfing" than wholesale pandemonium typical this time of year.
Even so, when his location opened at 5 p.m. Thursday, about 200 people were waiting in line for a chance to purchase "Hatchimals," a furry animal that pops out of an egg. Jensen's store had just 20 of the coveted toy on hand.
He stood near the registers, smiling as customers pushed carts full of toys to the front.
"Oh, he's got some good stuff," Jensen said peering into one basket filled with Pokemon stuffed animals. Shelves that were once full of Barbie dolls sat bare while Stars Wars-themed candy remained well-stocked.
Raven Roper and her husband got to Toys R Us at 7 a.m., having started their long drive from Elko, Nev. at 3 a.m.
"We don't have many stores there," she said. "It's easier to drive up here and get everything in one swoop."
Pulling into the parking lot for her first Black Friday experience, Roper, who was expecting a busy fiasco of aggressive shoppers, said she was shocked at how quiet it was: "It doesn't even seem that bad," she told her husband.
Once inside, the Ropers beelined for a Batman robot, scoring the last one. The two pushed around two fully loaded carts while holding their 11-month-old daughter, Aryana.
"She keeps a good secret," Roper joked. "She's not going to tell her brothers what we got."
At Walmart in Sandy, snow shovels selling for $11.94 were nearly wiped clean, but aisles of $398 flat screens and $39 blu ray players were largely untouched.
Hailee Walsh and her husband went to the superstore for their annual Black Friday tradition: stocking up on movies. The couple picks out about 20 DVDs each year — "everything except horror." This time, Walsh clung to $5 copies of "San Andreas," "Independence Day" and "Central Intelligence" as a few other shoppers milled around.
One nearby woman, delighted by her acquisition of a $15 pogo stick and set of towels, said the store was "not normal Black Friday busy."
Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner