The Andrade family of Waipahu has turned out for the day-after-Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping tradition for the past 25 years and though the crowds didn't seem as big this year, there were certainly plenty of discounts being offered.

In just the first five hours of shopping at Ala Moana Center yesterday, father Ken Andrade made three separate trips to the car to unload all of the packages the family bought.

"I definitely saw some good deals," he said.

At the other end of Ala Moana, sisters Danielle Feldmann, 16, and Heather Feldmann, 13, sat surrounded by more than $800 worth of merchandise they picked up in their first Black Friday ever.

In August, the sisters and their family moved to Kailua from Alberta, Canada, where they don't enjoy — some might say survive — the American phenomenon known as "Black Friday," which gets its name from the desire of retailers to turn their ledgers from "red" losses into "black" profits over the holidays.

At Ala Moana Center, "most retailers achieve between 25 percent to 50 percent of their annual sales volume in this relatively short period of time that spans from late November through Christmas and the end of December," spokesman Matthew Derby said. "We are optimistic that this year's Black Friday will present some positive numbers for our center's retailers."

Across the country, the retail picture appeared gloomy heading into Black Friday.

November and December sales at stores open for at least a year may rise 1 percent, the smallest gain since 2002, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York-based trade group.

Individual customers, meanwhile, could spend an average of 29 percent less on holiday gifts this year — for a total of $616, according to a Gallup Inc. poll.

LESS-CRAZY LINES

Justyn Tabaniag, a 20-year-old, Hawai'i Pacific University nursing student from Salt Lake, may have miscalculated the state of the economy.

He showed up at Circuit City in Pearlridge Shopping Center on Thanksgiving Day because he thought he had learned his lesson from his first Black Friday experience last year.

In 2007, Tabaniag showed up at the same Circuit City store at midnight, only to join a long line of shoppers that serpentined around the store. Because he was so far back in line, Tabaniag didn't get a shot at any of the "door buster" discounts that interested him.

So this year, Tabaniag and his cousin, Kennard Capili, also 20, gave up their Thanksgiving Day meal to stake out their spot at the front of Circuit City at 8 a.m.

Maybe they didn't have to make such an effort.

The next customer to show up to stand in line didn't appear for another four hours.

"Last year, it was a lot busier," Tabaniag said. "This year, the line was kind of empty."

But, as the person at the head of the line, Tabaniag got first crack at $1,500 worth of televisions and laptop computers that had been discounted for Black Friday.

Despite the downturn in the economy, Tabaniag was able to spend so much as a student because he lives rent free with his parents.

"I didn't really see anybody buying that much," he said. "I didn't see anybody with big bundles."

But at Ala Moana, three generations of shoppers from Sydney, Australia — grandma Ada Lyras, her daughter, Margaret Peters, and Peters' daughter, Katee — made up for the lack of bundles that Tabaniag didn't see at Pearlridge.

The women lugged more than $1,000 worth of discounted items they mostly bought for themselves.

For instance Katee, 22, bought a $95 pair of Nike shoes that retail for $850 Down Under.

"This is really fun," she said.

DEALS AT ALA MOANA

Ala Moana offered customers cheat sheets on sales yesterday, 1,000 free cups of coffee from Nordstrom eBar for cheat sheet holders, free valet parking at three mall locations and a chance for shoppers to win a $500 shopping spree and a parking stall at Ala Moana valid for one year.

Some of the efforts to attract shoppers worked.

The Ala Moana Disney store — like half of the Disney stores around the country — opened at midnight and had about 150 people waiting in line for discounted dolls and clothing that came with additional 20 percent discounts.

"It was packed," said Derby, Ala Moana's spokesman.

Macy's opened at 5 a.m. and had about 400 shoppers in line.

Right after the rest of the mall opened at 6 a.m., "everyone was extremely busy," Derby said. "We're really pleased."

The Andrade family — dad Ken, mom Janet, and sons Kenneth and Jedd — have been through the Black Friday drill for at least a quarter century and knew what to expect.

They showed up at Ala Moana at 5:30 a.m. "because I don't like looking for parking," Ken Andrade said.

He saw lots of 25 percent discounts and made three separate trips to the car to unload packages in just the first five hours of shopping.

"People are definitely looking for bargains and we have to watch what we're spending," he said.

He had his eye on a pair of wireless headphones at Sears that were already sold out. He then looked for a pair of discounted noise-reduction headphones at Radio Shack, which were also gone.

"We're definitely looking at things that are on sale," he said.

For plenty of other first-time Black Friday shoppers, yesterday represented an eye-opening ordeal.

Mika Mitsuyoshi of Pearl City normally gets her Christmas shopping wrapped up early but had to set out for Ala Moana yesterday.

"I definitely procrastinated this year," she said.

So Mitsuyoshi had to pack up her children Kameron, 3, and Meigan, 2, fight through the throng of traffic and navigate the crowded walkways with her children's dual-seat stroller.

Instead of shopping closer to home at Pearlridge, Mitsuyoshi was drawn by Ala Moana's offer of free, parking.

But next year, she promised to go back to her old, diligent shopping routine.

"Now I know I was on the right track to get all of my shopping day before Thanksgiving," she said.