10:22 PM, Dolphin Mall The line to the Michael Kors store was 120 people long. The deal: 20 percent off the whole purchase, with some merchandise already marked down 40 percent. So the typical $250 purse would sell for... $120.

"Aren’t you glad wallets don’t cost this much?" nutrition manager Robert Sherman said to a reporter from his spot near the front of the line. It took him an hour to get there.

His wife, Lorie, was there to pick out her first Kors purse. "This is her Christmas present," Sherman said. Then the attendant parted the plastic guard rail and the Shermans slipped inside.

9:45 PM, Coral Gables At the Sears in Coral Gabes near Miracle Mile, which opened at 8 p.m., shoppers got an early start on the deals. And in most cases, they were there to buy a bigger, better TV.

Shoppers began arriving at around noon at the store to get a ticket for the early entry DoorBuster deals. Among them was Graciela Nodarse, 40, of Miami, and her teenage son, Mike, who were there for the advertised 50-inch HDTV for $299.

They had arrived at the store at around 5 p.m., landed a ticket, scurried inside and purchased the TV.

By 9 p.m., they were in the merchandise pick-up area waiting for their names to be called, along with other shoppers who came for the early deals.

"The wait wasn’t so bad," Nodarse said. "I think if we had gone to an electronics store we would still be in line until midnight. Here, once we got in it was easy."

9:35 PM, Sawgrass Mills Craig Karpe arrived at Target at Sawgrass at 6 p.m. to get the 32-inch television for $147. He was one of the first 20 people in line. Target opened at 9 p.m., and he was done in just over 30 minutes.

"I give Target a lot of credit; it was really organized," said Karpe, 46, of Tamarac. "The TVs were already in carts down the aisles for you to grab and go."

But he has mixed feelings about the early Black Friday opening.

"It’s nice not having to get up in the middle of.the night, " Karpe said. "I also think you’re cutting the holiday short. Thanksgiving shouldn’t be about taking the family to the mall."

9:30 PM, Pembroke Pines Christian Cutillo, of Weston, left her Thanksgiving dinner early to shop.

By 9:30 p.m. she had a cart filled with merchandise at the Target near Pembroke Lakes Mall and had already been to Wal-Mart and Sears.

The 26-year-old is a 14-year Black Friday veteran. She said the night of shopping is worth it not only for the savings, but also because it allows her to get a majority of her gift-buying out of the way.

9:25 PM, Dolphin Mall The line outside the Swaroski jewelry store was 10 people long.

9:15 PM, Pembroke Pines Kim White was standing with dozens ahead of her in the electronics line at the Target near Pembroke Lakes Mall.

She was waiting to buy a Wii video game console and games that were on sale.

Target was the third store she and her husband had been to since they started with a nearby Wal-Mart at 7:30 p.m.

"We do our research and we watch the sales all year," said White, 30, of Pembroke Pines, who has been shopping on Black Friday for the past six years.

She said with the right planning the sales are worth staying up for.

8:01 PM, Kendall Big LED television sets for as little as $147 brought Yamilet Guerra to the BrandsMart in Kendall at 10 a.m. Thursday.

She didn’t mind forgoing a turkey dinner.

"A 60-inch TV for $647 is a good deal, " Guerra, 18, of Miami, said of her planned purchase.

Joining her in line at 10 a.m. were Uglis Boscan, 45, and Juan Romero, 40, both visitors from Venezuela.

"We want the cheap LED TVs and any other good deal we can get," Boscan said.

The trio said the line behind them began to form at around 3 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., as the temperature began to drop, they were hoping the store would open at 10 p.m. instead of midnight.

7:52 PM , Toys R Us, Doral: This big-box toy store won’t open for eight more minutes, but Eddy Fonseca is already halfway through one of the biggest shopping sprees in the state.

The coordinator of the Marines Corps’ Toys For Tots drive in Hialeah, Fonseca and his team of volunteers had the run of the store for the last two hours as hundreds of regular customers waited outside for their chance at the Thanksgiving deals.

"We try and get the discounts like everyone else," Fonseca said.

He was checking out in a special line Toys R Us set up for the charity. His budget: $10,000, all donated by supporters in recent months. That’s enough for about 20 carts of toys.

A quick tour of Toys R Us’ aisles before the doors opened to the public showed no dent in inventory for the early-bird shopping run.

Thursday, 7:30 PM, Pembroke Pines For nearly two hours Rose Marie Walker strolled the lanes at the Wal-Mart near Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines waiting for the 8 p.m. sale to start.

The store’s sale items were sealed off with employees standing guard to make sure shoppers didn’t start grabbing merchandise until the sale began.

By 7:30 p.m., the 56-year-old was standing her ground in front of a display of bedroom slippers, jeans and boxers, waiting to get the all-clear to fill her cart.

"I am just shopping for a couple of people," said Walker, a Miami Gardens resident. "I am going home tomorrow by 8 a.m."

She plans on shopping at Target and JC Penney after leaving Wal-Mart and expects to have most of her shopping done by that time.

Over in the electronics section, Dwayne Cisrow, 32, was tenth in a line of about 12 people for a Nabi 2, a tablet designed for children that’s on sale for $129, a $70 savings from its regular price, according to the store flier.

"You save a lot," he said.

Cisrow, who came to the store with his wife, mother-in-law and his daughter’s godmother, said the early shop time did not interfere with his Thanksgiving.

His family ate dinner together before heading to Wal-Mart around 7:30 p.m.

"I don’t feel either way about it," said Cisrow, of Fort Lauderdale.

Miami Herald reporters Luisa Yanez, Doug Hanks, Elaine Walker, Elizabeth De Armas and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.