Black Friday gets off to a frigid start

Adam Wishne, a 19-year-old student from Geneva, was the first in line with two friends, having pitched a tent at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Like many people in line, Wishne and his friends were looking to buy laptop computers. Best Buy had a limited number of Sony laptops for $399 and Toshiba laptops for $229 -- and high-definition televisions.

"Despite the tent, we've been freezing almost the whole time since we got here," Wishne said. "But it was worth it for the great deals we got ... These will make for excellent presents," he said.

Between them, Wishne and his friends bought at least five laptops and two TVs as gifts.

The National Retail Federation, a trade group, expects total holiday retail sales, including November and December, to rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion this year.

That would mark the slowest holiday sales growth since 2002, when sales rose 1.3 percent, and would fall below the ten-year holiday sales average of a 4.8 percent increase.

But at New York-area Sears and Kmart stores, the crowds waiting outside were thicker than last year, according to spokeswoman Alison Kmiotek, who said the big sellers were digital cameras, televisions and toys.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller; Additional reporting by Justin Grant and Franklin Paul in New York and Nick Carey in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)