For most students, living on a budget is the standard norm during the four years they spend at college. But once a year across the nation, thousands of people line-up across stores hoping to secure the best deals.

That day is Black Friday, and Brian Jacobson, University of Illinois alumnus and assistant store manager of Best Buy in Champaign, has seen the measures that electronic consumerists will go for savings.

“Lines start mid-day on Thanksgiving and we have people who eat their Thanksgiving dinner in line,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson, who has witnessed crowds outside Best Buy for the last four years, said shoppers eagerly waiting in line is all a part of the fun and exciting environment that comes during the holiday season.

“Even people not shopping for deals look to start Christmas shopping that day,” Jacobson said.

David (Yifan) Li, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, is one of the many avid electronic consumers who has participated in the lines outside retail stores leading-up to Black Friday.

“It was my second Thanksgiving in the U.S. and I wanted to see what the Black Friday sales was all about — it was like a cultural experience,” Li said.

Growing-up in China, Li was not aware of Thanksgiving, let alone the sales that follow the day after. However, a combination of the surrounding hype and interest in electronic goods led him to camp outside a Best Buy in Los Angeles in 2008.

“I talked to the first guy in line; it was a group of four people that started lining-up two days prior,” Li said. “They had a huge tent and they took turns securing the tent — it was like a tailgate”

Li said with most people arriving around 10 p.m., the Best Buy parking lot was full by 3 a.m.

“People are ready to run in at 4 a.m,” Li said. “[Employees] work down the line and ask what you want, like Xbox for example. Then you may get it for $100 instead of $300.”

According to Li, the closer you are to the front of the line, the more likely you are to get the deal of your choice. “There’s only a limited number of coupons; if someone claims the one you want, you have to pick something else,” Li said.

Retailers, such as Kmart, also have a similar coupon system.

“We have a ticket system that allows customers to receive a ticket for the item they want to purchase when the store opens,” said Terry Brophey, the vice-president of integrated marketing communications at Sears Holding Corporation, in an e-mail interview. “For example, if we have 20 of a specific TV in stock, we’ll give out 20 tickets to the first 20 customers in line.”

Li said he had lined-up with a slight interest in purchasing a laptop, but the $100 dollars off coupon was not enough to lure him into buying a new one. Instead, it was the experience that convinced him to camp overnight outside Best Buy.

“Cost saving was never my first concern for the event,” Li said. “The impression I got was that most people do it for fun — it’s like camping, they’re all prepared with books and tons of food. They all know what’s going to happen.”

Li said the only people he thought that secured a worthwhile deal were the people at the very front of the line, who ended up buying a plasma television.

Despite not buying a laptop, Li confessed he did end up purchasing a few other cheaper electronic products. For retailers, all the credit card swipes add-up.

With the economy picking up this year, Olivia Maciolek, an executive team leader of the hard line at Champaign’s Target, said they expect a sales increase of 2% across the store front, with around 30% of the total sales coming from the electronics department.

Maciolek said with the recent release of Kinect and Playstation Move, Target expects these games to be best-sellers in the electronic department.

While staff at Best Buy and Kmart said they also expect motion control gaming to be popular electronic items, stores themselves have taken different marketing strategies to promote Black Friday.

“We actually started ‘Better Than Black Friday,’ three days sales events the weekend of November 5-7, and they will continue through to the real Black Friday as well as the three weekends after Black Friday,” Brophey said.

During the weekends before and after Black Friday, Brophey said, there will also be special offers on “gotta-have gift” items.

Further differentiating itself from other competitors, don’t expect results to come up on Google if you search “Black Friday deals + Kmart.”

“We call it Blue Friday at Kmart because Mr. Bluelight thinks ours is better than other retailers!” Brophey said.