At 12 a.m. sharp stores like Walmart, Target and Best Buy open their doors to welcome the crowds that define this after-Thanksgiving shopping event: Black Friday.

“I love to stand on the top floor of the mall and look at the swarm of girls ripping into the doors at Pink,” junior Maddison Jarman said.

Victoria’s Secret, Pink is just one of the many popular stores shoppers rush to, as well as Target, Walmart and Apple stores.

“I bought a 28-inch HD flatscreen for $125 two years ago from Target,” Jarman said.

Last year, overall sales hit $12.3  for Thanksgiving and Black Friday – up 2.3 percent from 2012, according to CNN Money.

“We typically get a lot of Christmas shopping done on Black Friday,”  junior Katy Terry said. “We generally spend a couple hundred, maybe.”

Twenty-five percent of Thanksgiving Day shoppers say they arrived at a physical retail store by 8 p.m. and 37.3 percent said they arrived at a store before midnight, which was an increase from Thanksgiving Day 2013, according to the National Retail Federation survey.

“I’m gonna be right in the middle of it,” environmental ed teacher Stacy Robins said. “I’m hoping that the iPad Mini is on sale really cheap so I can buy two for my kids. I’m also thinking about going to Dick’s Sporting Goods hoping they have some good sales as well.”

Shoppers use a variety of  strategies to make it to their items, even if it means pushing people out of their way.

“I have small stature so I can weave between people’s legs without getting smashed,” junior Connor McCabe said. “I climb on the shelves to get around people.”