Shoppers at the Walmart in Lehighton found plenty of check-out lanes open and workers ready to help them make their Black Friday purchases this morning.

Kristen Jachowicz of Nesquehoning said that she used to go early for the Black Friday shopping, but has stopped shopping the early morning Black Friday sales ever since the best deals were made available on Thursday."I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving," she said. "I won't do it. Ever since they started the Thanksgiving shopping, Black Friday isn't what it used to be."Selena Hanson did go shopping Thursday night."It wasn't horrible," she said. "They have it well organized these days."About 15,000 were in line for Macy's opening in New York, the retailer said.However, customers were sparse at the Walmart in Lehighton this morning.Brooke Sosa of Slatington was one of the shoppers at Walmart shortly after 8 a.m. She and her husband Lewis were picking up a few Christmas items for their four children."We came in here for tires, but decided to check out the rest of the store," Sosa said. The couple had picked up a large remote control car for one of their youngsters.Faith Green, Slatington, was also filling up her cart with purchases at Walmart. She was buying presents for some of the seven people on her Christmas list."It was full in here last night," she said. "I had to have family members help me because it was so full of people."Green is handicapped and uses the motorized cart to help her shop. She said she really enjoys Black Friday shopping."I think the deals are good," said Green. "Since they started the Thursday shopping, I've been doing that too."Green shops early in the season because she sends presents to friends who live in Australia."Where else can you get Batman pajamas for $4.50?" she said. "He's going to love them." She added, "From here I'm going to Kmart."Sales drew some people to Lowe's in Lehighton.Nolan LeBlanc of Lehighton, was buying an air compressor."I came in for a different project and decided on this instead cause of the price," he said.LeBlanc's wife was picking up items to help her set up a display at Christmas City, Bethlehem, where the couple sell Gluhwein mugs filled with a type of mulled wine to visitors.Tim Orvaec of Lehighton was shopping at Lowe's for a sale item for his wife to use now. Orvaec purchased a crusher, blender, chopper combination.Sharon Hoffman of Lehighton, with sale flyer in hand, said she was planning to purchase saw blades which she said were on a special sale."We might purchase a new artificial tree because our old tree is 13 years old," she added.Overall, the National Retail Federation expects retail sales to be up 4 percent to $602 billion during the last two months of the year. That's higher than last year's 3.5 percent growth, but below the 6 percent pace seen before the recession.Analysts expect sales to be generated at the expense of profits, as retailers will likely have to do more discounting to get people into stores.Some just prefer to stay home.Sharon J. Keiser commented on our Facebook page this morning: "The little shopping I have to do, I do online."The Associated Press contributed to this report.