COEUR d'ALENE - Residents throughout Coeur d'Alene fought their turkey-induced tryptophan slumber to brave the elements and try to be first in line for Black Friday sales.

Except this year, Black Friday bled into Thanksgiving.

A large number of major retail stores opened their doors on Thursday evening, offering large discounts on big-ticket items such as televisions. For customers like Russell and Hanna Helgeson, that meant getting in line at 9:30 am in order to guarantee them a marked-down 50-inch television.

"It's the best of both worlds," Hanna said. "We get a $130 TV and we were still able to spend time with our family."

In order to accomplish this, Hanna paid her younger brother to sit in their place for three hours while they went home and had a turkey dinner.

"Best $30 we ever spent," Russell said.

Trisha Simmons was right behind the Helgesons in line at Target. Simmons said it was her first time waiting for the doors to open on Thanksgiving and she had been there since noon.

"I'm actually having a lot of fun," Simmons said. "If we had a burning barrel here to keep warm, it'd be a lot more fun."

Target opened at 8 p.m. Thursday, with other retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy opening even earlier. The early openings are in response to Thanksgiving falling later in the month and retailers trying to capitalize as much as possible on holiday shopping.