It’s wasn’t the days of Tickle Me Elmo or Cabbage Patch dolls or the Black Fridays with a barricade of shopping carts corralling shoppers to the Walmart entrance with a heavy police presence, but the shoppers still appeared under the cover of darkness Friday morning as temperatures felt well below freezing.

Of the 186.9 million people shopping from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the National Retail Federation predicted that 130.4 million were anticipated to shop Friday . The retail advocate said holiday shopping is expected to top $1 trillion for the first time throughout November and December.

Media friends Shannon Murphy and Marissa Appolonia were exiting the Walmart at the Marple Crossroads shortly before 8 a.m.

“We went to Old Navy and then Marshalls,” Murphy said, adding that

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