Staples Assistant Manager Kendal Lashley recalled bringing 14 dozen doughnuts for shoppers waiting outside the office supply store at 5 a.m. Friday.

Within five hours after the store’s 6 a.m. opening, Lashley reported having more doughnuts left over than many of the store’s early bird specials, such as BlackBerry tablet computers.

Shoppers showed up early at stores all over Muskogee on Friday morning, taking advantage of deep discounts on electronics, tools, clothing and other goodies.

“I was here at 3 a.m., and people were waiting to get into the door,” said Lee James, assistant store manager for home improvement at Sears, which opened at 4 a.m. “We had a good start and we had good customers —  friendly, patient and spending money.”

The Jewell family of Muskogee joined the early shoppers.

“We started in the middle of the night last night,” Billy Jewell said, buying cookware at Dillard’s around 9:30 a.m. Friday. “We shopped for about three or four hours. Then we went home, dropped off our purchases, rested a couple of hours and came back out here.”

Unlike other stores, Dillard’s chose not to open extra early on Black Friday. The store opened at 8 a.m., about two hours before regular opening hours.

Store manager Ed Wilson said the company wanted to keep its associates fresh during the heavy shopping day.

“We wanted to keep our clerks from coming in at some ungodly hour,” Wilson said, adding that Dillard’s will be open later hours as Christmas approaches.

Wilson said sales over the past year indicate a good Christmas season.

Amanda White, a Dillard’s associate in cookware, said the store sold three sets of Teflon cookware within the first couple of hours Friday morning.

Even after seven early hours Friday morning, James remained cheerful and chipper, chatting with Sears shoppers and directing them to different departments.

She said there were several busy spells Friday morning, but shoppers remained courteous.

Around 11 a.m., Lashley stood by the Staples entrance, ready to give customers tickets for the items on sale. Giving tickets to customers and sending them to certain parts of the store kept things orderly, she said.

Not all those buying electronics or computers were in the spirit of buying for others Friday.

Caleb Allison said he had looked all morning for a laptop computer. He said two stores he had visited earlier that morning had already sold out of what he wanted. He got a sales ticket from Lashley and took it to the computer department. He said the item wasn’t the brand he was looking for, but it would do.

Meanwhile, Staples Easy Tech Associate Wesley Brown showed Marcy Rowlett a variety of tablet computers. Rowlett said she had been looking for one for herself.

Lashley said the store quickly sold out of some tablet computer brands, such as BlackBerry and Acer. However, she does not expect tablets to be the season’s “it” item.

“People are still needing to learn about them, but they’re really easy to use,” she said.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.