by Krystal Paco

Guam - The early bird gets the worm, or in today's case, the big sales. Thousands of island residents were up before the crack of dawn looking to save big on Black Friday.

23-year-olds Jon Marquez and Darlene Sanchez were pleasantly surprised to have missed the crowd at Home Depot this afternoon as they hoped to check close to 60 people off their Christmas list. "It's not as bad as I thought it'd be," said Marquez, with Sanchez adding, "We learned our lesson from Black Friday last year, so we decided to come around lunch time. We waited in line for three hours at Macy's, we don't want to do that this year."

26-year-old Carlos Villagomez was another happy shopper as he walked out of Kmart with an overflowing cart of toys and tools with savings close to $150. "They have it pretty planned out, so I was in line for ten minutes," he shared.

Villagomez says Kmart employees have got a good hold on Black Friday madness, especially those responsible for restocking. "Electronics went fast; you can tell they restocked this place twice since I've been here and I've only been here for an hour," he added.

Sears Hometown store owner Norman Yuen agrees with Villagomez that electronics are this season's hot ticket item. "Most people here today is for toys and I think we have a lot of TVs out of stock already. The thing about it is that Guam is one day ahead of the mainland. None of the hometown stores have the inventory we have the day advantage that we can order one day earlier than the other people," he said.

Yuen says a line was forming outside the Upper Tumon store as early as midnight to catch over 60-percent savings when doors opened at 4 this morning. "I know that we're very busy since the morning at 2 o'clock. Until now nobody's had lunch, not even myself or my people," he said.

For early birds or last-minute shoppers, Villagomez offers some words of advice, saying, "Go in there with a mindset what you want to get and stick to your plan because you're going to get stuck in here."