OCEANSIDE - As hundreds of bleary-eyed, bundled-up customers anxiously counted down the pre-dawn hours outside the Oceanside Best Buy on Friday, freshly showered and well-rested employees made the last-minute changes inside that they said could make or break the day's sporting activity.

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They set up DVD displays. They ran through work schedules and a game plan. They pulled down dozens of PlayStation 3 consoles after a greater than expected number of recent queries.

They were not alone. The day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year, is seen by many shoppers in North County and around the nation as an opportunity to snag some great deals. And the flood of customers can make or break a store's bottom line, according to the National Retail Federation.

Scores of other North County residents gathered outside other big-box stores, discount retailers and malls.

At Westfield North County in Escondido, Kelly Nelson, the mall's marketing director said the registers have rung consistently since 5 a.m.

This year, the nation's retailers are expecting to welcome as many as 132.9 million customers into their stores Friday, today, and Sunday, according to the federation. In 2006, 140 million customers said they hit the stores on the Black Friday weekend, spending an average of $360.15, the trade association said.

Over the last decade, holiday sales have generated about 20 percent of the retail industry's annual sales, according to the group.

"There are some smoking deals," said 24-year-old Best Buy employee Spike Daigle, who said he had looked forward to working the shopping day each year ever since his first in 2002. "I like coming in early and the insaneness of it all."

Over the last 11 Black Fridays, the store's general manager, Larry Doebler, said he has refined the process to make the morning as smooth and fun for customers as possible.

That includes giving customers in line color-coated vouchers for the stores' door-buster deals more than an hour before opening, hanging matching balloons inside that delineate registers by item, and lining up shopping carts outside alongside a line of shoppers that snaked past several other retailers.

"This year is going to be better (than last year)," Doebler said as he toured the deserted aisles two hours ahead of the 5 a.m. opening. "I think my first year, I didn't know what to expect. I must have turned pale white when they opened the doors. Now, I look forward to it because this day differentiates us."

To lure customers this year, when sales have been slow in the face of a weak housing market and credit crunch, many retailers offered customers deals that were too good to pass up Friday and today, according to the National Retail Association.

At Best Buy, for instance, those who braved the cold - some for more than 24 hours - had their pick of about nine different laptops, marked down from $450 to $250 apiece.

"You can't beat the deals," said Oceanside resident Vickie Tillman, who took the first spot in line with about five other friends and family members. "That's what everybody is here for."

Tillman, 47, said that she and her friends have been lining up for the day-after Thanksgiving discounts every year since the Cabbage Patch Kid craze in the 1980s. She has never been anymore than five people back from the start of the line, she said.

"I think that we just do it now to have fun because our kids are grown," said Tillman's friend, Tina Taylor, who helped save the group's spot at the front by taking shifts for showers, food and rest since 8 p.m. Wednesday.

On the group's list of must-have items Friday, Taylor said, were the $199.97 Intel Celeron desktop computer with a 17-inch LCD wide-screen and Canon color printer, a 32-inch LCD High Definition TV and many other electronic items.

Next door to the Oceanside Best Buy, Steve Johnson and his girlfriend, Gillie Bachligi, were among the first five customers standing outside Wal-Mart.

"I'm buying all my Christmas presents for myself," he said.

While the door-buster deals at Best Buy and many other retailers may have been out of reach later, there were still $2.49 DVDs, video gaming systems, computer software and other deals to find.

"It's crazy," Cardiff resident Robert Partlowi said as he scavenged through CDs with his 17-year-old daughter.

Hundreds of other customers shuffled through the aisles with carts overflowing at 5:30 a.m. Partlowi, who arrived about 30 minutes before and missed the line, picked up a Canon Rebel XT digital camera, accessory kit and 75 to 300 millimeter zoom lens as a gift for his daughter.

"I'm surprised I am here. I brought my daughter here because she wanted to brave it," Partlowi said, smiling as he showed off the camera and bragged about his savings. "It's all for her."

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.