Despite backlash from some retail workers and shoppers, analysts and executives say it looks like early Black Friday store openings - some even pushing into Thanksgiving - are here to stay.

And many customers across Charlotte, waiting in lines hundreds of shoppers long, said they like staying up late rather than getting up early. Many national chains moved their openings earlier than ever before this year, with sales starting as early as 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

"Midnight is better because otherwise you have to wake up at 2 a.m.," said Lynne Holder, waiting with relatives outside Macy's at Northlake Mall late Thursday.

Shasta Ashby was waiting in line at Toys R Us, planning to buy gifts for her two kids. She agreed that an earlier opening was better than actually waiting until Black Friday.

"If you've got little ones, it's hard to get everyone up in the wee hours," she said. "For me, (shopping Thursday night) is a better fit."

Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren told the Wall Street Journal he thought moving the opening earlier went well. Macy's, the nation's largest department store chain, opened at midnight for the first time this year.

"My first impression is this is a positive step, and we're attracting a different type of customer," Lundgren said. He said the night seemed to be successful at luring younger customers.

An estimated 152 million Americans were expected to shop over the long Thanksgiving weekend, according to a prediction by the National Retail Federation.

"I think retailers who opened at midnight did themselves a service. A lot of consumers mentioned to us they would rather stay up late and then get to bed vs. getting up at 2 or 3 a.m.," said Britt Beemer, head of the retail consultant firm America's Research Group. "It was a grand slam."

Mary Delk, a retail consultant with the firm Deloitte, said earlier openings are likely here to stay. "The earlier openings, I think, are very indicative of what's going on with retailers. They're really battling," Delk said. "While the consumer has been spending this year more than expected, the predictions are for modest growth at most."

If the retailers that opened earlier see more of a sales boost than those that stuck with Friday openings, like JC Penney, Delk said she expects midnight or Thanksgiving Day openings to spread.

Scenes across the area were similar at many stores Thanksgiving evening. At Toys R Us near Concord Mills, a line of people, three-or-four-wide, snaked from the door, across a parking lot and around to a nearby Olive Garden. Shoppers waiting for the 9 p.m. sale numbered in the thousands and exceeded those who came last year, when the store opened at 10 p.m., a manager said.

The shopping rush around Charlotte was mostly peaceful. But in Union County, a man was arrested after fighting broke out at Monroe Crossing mall. Also, at Concord Mills Mall, a woman was issued a citation Friday morning when police said she left a 2-year-old and an infant unattended in her car. The woman had gone inside the mall to shop.

With the crush of shoppers building up in anticipation of midnight openings, traffic seemed lighter around many Charlotte-area stores in the pre-dawn hours than last year, when many opened between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. "You should have seen the parking lot about 10 o'clock last night," one clerk at the Indian Land Walmart said Friday morning. "It was full. We're still busy this morning, but it was really something last night."

Popular, controversial move

Headlines during the weeks leading up to Black Friday were dominated by hand-wringing over the creep of shopping into Thanksgiving. One after another - Macy's, Target, Kohl's, Best Buy, Walmart and Toys R Us - announced their earliest Black Friday sales ever, pushing up to and into Thanksgiving Day.

Some shoppers complained it was too much. A Target worker in Omaha, Neb., started an online petition asking Target to delay its opening to 5 a.m. Friday, so workers could spend all of Thanksgiving with their families. He gathered more than 200,000 signatures.

On Friday, a half-dozen members of the Occupy Charlotte movement stood outside the Target on Kings Drive, near uptown, holding "Boycott Black Friday" signs. Brian Martin, 23, said the protesters were there to encourage people to shop at locally-owned stores, rather than massive chains. "We're trying to get people to put money into the local economy," he said.

But many customers said Black Friday shopping is a tradition for them. "This is part of Christmas for us," said Alice Burris, of China Grove. She was shopping for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren at Toys R Us near Concord Mills. Burris estimated she saved about $85 on a shopping cart full of toys by getting in line at 4 p.m. and waiting.

"It's like a madhouse in there," Burris said. "But it gets the blood pumping." She listed where else she planned to shop overnight: "Concord Mills, Walmart, Macy's, Belk and Sears."

The season ahead

Retailers are fighting hard for shoppers' early holiday dollars this year, as consumer spending is forecast to rise only 2.8 percent this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. That increase would be barely half of last year's 5.2 percent rise.

Beemer speculated stores that didn't join the earlier Black Friday openings could be hurt as the season progresses: His consumer surveys have shown that people who shop at a store the day after Thanksgiving are nearly three times as likely to visit those stores again as Christmas approaches.

Over the coming weeks, Delk said she expects to see the steepest discounts from specialty fashion retailers needing to clear their inventories. She also expects flat-screen televisions to remain priced relatively low, a trend that's been ongoing for several years as the cost of producing them keeps falling.

Of consumers surveyed by Deloitte, 39 percent said they were waiting to shop until the end of the season, a significant increase from last year. They could be disappointed if they're holding out for huge markdowns, Delk said.

General merchandise stores, such as department store chains, have less excess inventory, Delk said. As a consequence, they might not have to offer many steep discounts - especially if they see strong sales over the weekend.

What remains to be seen, Delk said, is how much momentum retailers will carry into the next crucial five weeks: "The big question is, will today's frenzy - what arguably could be called a 48-hour day for Black Friday - will that spin forward through the holiday season?"

Staff writer Steve Lyttle and WCNC-TV contributed.