ROCKVILLE, Md. - Customers stacked up 50-deep outside Old Navy on Rockville Pike before the doors opened at noon.

"We were just out getting some groceries and we thought 'Old Navy's having a great sale, why not come on down?'" shared Potomac resident Terri Wilbur.

The Rockville location is one of 700 Old Navy stores open across the country this Thanksgiving. Retailers dreading dull sales figures this season are now turning to the day before Black Friday to try and pump up their numbers.

"They get an extra 10 percent off today. We really need to drive that home, talk about it on the sales floor!" said the store manager to employees.

Thanksgiving Shopping in Springfield, Va.

Richmond resident Mark Badders said, "On one hand, it's commercializing the holidays a bit too much, but on the other hand, you know, you don't have all the crowds you'd have on Black Friday."

Toys 'R Us will open at midnight Thursday night. Many Radio Shacks on the West Coast are open all day Thursday. For the second year now, sports authority is welcoming shoppers on Thanksgiving Day. A 25-percent off sale had customers zeroing in on big ticket items.

"We just finished the Turkey Chase race and we were inspired to continue to exercise so we're looking at treadmills and ellipticals," Robin Cohen of Potomac told us.

On this normally lazy day for so many, exercising proved to be popular.

"They literally fell apart!" said one person.

David Ochs was in the midst of a charity football game when his cleats broke.

"This is huge! If Sports Authority wasn't open, our team would lose right now!"  he said.

Thanksgiving Shopping in Alexandria (web | news) , Va.

Thanksgiving shopping might have been about crass commercialization for some and critical convenience for others, but in the end, it didn't sound as if any of these shoppers would be missing a meal.

Jasmine Sawyer of Gaithersburg said, "I'm finished for the day! I'm going home to start getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner!"

Some people also already started their Christmas shopping in Springfield, Virginia. A number of retailers were open on Thanksgiving to take advantage of a boost in consumer confidence.

Thursday, people could shop at Old Navy, the Gap, Wal-Mart and K-Mart, which has been open every Thanksgiving.  But we asked, with turkey on the table why go shopping on Thanksgiving Day?

John Usher said, "Having read all the coupon offers this morning in the paper, it was like 'hey let's go save some money and not deal with the crowds on Friday.' So we got a head start."

Shopping on Thanksgiving is actually an annual tradition for the Walsh family, consisting of six kids and mom Susan. One brother was with his girlfriend but the rest were at the K-Mart in Springfield Thursday.

Susan Walsh says it's the togetherness that counts. She said, "K-mart is always open on Thanksgiving so then we'd go ahead and eat then go shopping and get a head start on Christmas."

Shoppers told us sales for Thanksgiving were too tempting to wait until Black Friday. Some also said they came out to shop today because they had to be back at work Friday, but others said they shopped just because it was fun.

The K-Mart is back open Friday at 6 a.m. Some other stores are opening at midnight or extra early Friday morning with door buster deals. People were already waiting in line in the cold rain Thursday night for the stores to open.

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