Shoppers were out in full force Friday doing their best to prop up the sagging economy.

Known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is historically the busiest shopping day of the year. With this holiday season predicted to be the weakest in decades, many retailers pulled out all the stops, offering even more “doorbuster” discounts and free gift promotions than ever before.

At Victoria’s Secret in Slidell’s Northshore Square, customers were rewarded with a free tote bag for purchases of $60 or more, while Express offered an extra 25 percent off all merchandise on Friday only. Many stores opened at 5 a.m. or earlier, and mall officials reported customers lining up at midnight and even earlier in order to take advantage of the specials, such as the free Mickey Mouse collectible snow globe offered at J.C. Penney.

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Northshore Square Marketing Director Kimberly Jacobs said the store opened at 4 a.m., while another anchor store, Sears, opened at 5 a.m.

Managers at both stores reported lines of people wrapped around the parking lot when they opened their doors.

“Managers are telling me they’re very pleased with the way things are going,” said Jacobs, who planned to log in at least 12 hours after arriving at the mall around 5:30 a.m. “The lines are moving well, and there haven’t been any negative incidents reported.”

While most customers appeared to have behaved themselves in the frenzy, some reported seeing people knock each over for luggage specials at Penney’s and fighting over Legos at Wal-Mart. Brian Labruzzo of Slidell, who began his day with his wife, niece and sister in Picayune, Miss., said it was almost like a military operation.

“I’d see people standing in one section on their cell phone reporting prices and quantities to someone else,” he said. “Other people would get in the checkout line while someone else went to find stuff, then they would toss it to them over people’s heads.”

Jacobs said many stores were offering specials in several different phases, from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then again from 2 to 6 p.m., for example. With a substation of the Slidell Police Department located in the mall, the continuous presence of law enforcement officers helped keep the crowds from getting too unruly.

Capt. Kevin O’Neill was traversing Northshore Boulevard, monitoring traffic flow. A malfunctioning signal light at the entrance to the Target shopping center, which also houses Academy Sports & Outdoors and others, was only letting two cars at a time enter the parking lot.

“It was taking an hour for all those cars to get into that lot,” said O’Neill. “The last thing you want on Black Friday is a traffic light that doesn’t work.”

To avoid the traffic, many shoppers got to the stores yesterday. Best Buy in Slidell and Covington had lines of people, complete with tents, during the night waiting to take advantage of lower-than-normal prices on everything from computers to large screen HDTVs.

Covington store manager Randy Gaspard said they passed out numbers to those camped out so they would be assured of getting the item they stayed in line to get.

Many customers, playing Santa Claus for friends and family, were buying multiple big-ticket items early Friday. One shopper’s cart alone held four 32-inch television sets.

One family said it’s become their tradition to get up early and make the early bird sales. The Ball family owns the Rock Band game set but was upgrading equipment to a larger TV, a better sound system and more games.

“We did this last year (shopping early), and it’s a lot of fun. We’ve been up since 3 a.m,” said Jason Ball as he and other family members performed and played “Band on the Run,” attracting a crowd of passersby in the store.

Elsewhere at the Stirling Covington shopping center, Target opened at 5 a.m. to a waiting crowd. The store was still crowded midmorning and included members of the Turgeau family, who began the day at Belk at 4 a.m. in order to get free gift cards.

Donna Turgeau said they were spending about the same amount of money on Christmas this year as in the past, while Monica Wallace, another member of the group, said that they were also spending gas money.

Bags full of merchandise were leaving stores, a good sign for the local economy. Many shoppers were looking for bargains, especially on larger items and essentials, such as electronics, toy kitchens, coats and shoes.

With many items marked down as much as 70 percent already, the early bird sales were definitely the place to be, with many items costing a fraction of their regular price.

Many store managers wouldn’t comment on sales figures early Friday, but crowds were said to be steady.

And as one sales clerk said, “Steady is always good.”