Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday retail season with the famed Black Friday — known for being one of the craziest nights of the year, thousands of people line up outside stores to get prized goods at a fraction of their regular prices.

Columbia definitely experienced some of the madness.

Big businesses opened early Thanksgiving night and stayed open late Friday, having special sales to bring customers, turkey-comas and all, into the retail chaos.

Target management said the store has a Black Friday sale each year. Opening at 9 p.m. Thanksgiving and staying open until 11 p.m. Friday, managers reported that their store stayed well-organized during its open hours, a surprising fact when taking into account the 4,000-some customers that lined up outside of their doors.

Store officials said this year they staffed more people due to the amount of products they had on sale. They met their revenue goals and said their results for Black Friday were exactly what they expected.

Other major retail companies were unavailable for comment.

Small businesses in Columbia offered great Black Friday deals as well. The City of Columbia Chamber of Commerce Director, Don Laird, discussed Black Friday.

“The businesses in Columbia each decide on their own what they offer on Black Friday,” he said. “They also have their own individual goals. This year was overall an especially good year for businesses in Columbia.”

He described how this year they tried to advertise for the Black Friday weekend a little more than usual and get as much word out as they could. Laird said he didn’t think small businesses were at a disadvantage because of the large retail stores.

“The small businesses in Columbia all offer great service,” he said. “They also don’t offer the same products as the bigger stores. They have specialty items that can’t usually be found anywhere else and that is what makes the small businesses so unique.”

Derek Garrett, Jock’s Nitch Locker Room manager, said the store had the same revenue as last year and it was a successful, busy weekend.

“We had a sale where we offered 30 percent off on the entire store,” Garrett said. “We also had a buy-one-get-one half-off sort of deal. We carried this deal on to Saturday as well.”

Clothing store Elly Couture’s assistant manager, Megan Hebbisen, said the store offered Black Friday deals as well.

“We had a beat-the-clock sale where from 8 to 10 a.m. items in the store would be 50 percent off, from 10 a.m. to noon they would be 40 percent off, from noon to 2 p.m. they’d be 30 percent off, and from 2 to 8 p.m. things would be 20 percent off,” she said. “The associates filled the store and we had a better revenue outcome this year than previous years. We also offered Cyber Monday sales. Next year we’ll probably do the same thing.”

The small shops all felt that they were not at a disadvantage to the big businesses. They all said because of the unique items and loyal customers that can be found in Columbia’s small businesses, their shops were actually at an advantage from the big businesses because their products can’t be found anywhere else.

Their only downfall, small business owners said, was that the big businesses have more resources for advertising. The small businesses said because of their success, the lack of advertising resources wasn’t a problem. They also agreed that the lack of students didn’t affect sales for the small businesses.

“The students leave every year, but the amount of great and loyal customers makes up for the lack of students,” Candy Factory manager Mike Atkinson said. “We don’t notice a difference.”