Long hailed as the day of the year when retailing was thought to turn profitable, "Black Friday" is taking on a new meaning for shoppers who snap up bargains and head to a second or even third store before dawn seeps into the sky.

More than 100 people spent Thursday night in front of the Best Buy electronics store on Madison Avenue in Murrieta, sipping coffee, dozing in lawn chairs or trading shifts inside a warm car. A handful of people who had been waiting since Wednesday paid $229 for Toshiba laptop computers with Canon printers -- a combo that normally would cost almost $700.

About 600 people had lined up in front of the Kohl's department store at the corner of Kalmia Street and Madison by the time it opened its doors at 4 a.m. Friday.

Several people were looking for discounts on clothes, while a few darted straight to the back of the store, where duffle bags were on sale.

Ashley Nordland, who was home from UC Irvine for Thanksgiving break, started her run at midnight at The Lake Elsinore Outlets. With two friends, she hit a nearby Denny's diner around 2 a.m. and then headed down to the Kohl's around 3:30 a.m. to shop for her mother.

"We were going to go to Target, but it doesn't open until 6," Nordland said.

"I've never done this in Montana," said Sarah Holloway, a Vanguard University student spending the holiday with a classmate in Lake Elsinore. "We don't have this many department stores."

The line was snaked around to the side of the Kohl's store facing Kalmia Avenue, where a full moon hung above the palm trees lining the entry drive.

The line started moving. Nordland and Holloway rounded the corner and disappeared inside.

Kohl's stores nationwide opened an hour earlier than last year. The chain already is popular among price-conscious consumers, thanks largely to clothing it frequently advertises as marked down by 20 percent to 50 percent. The discounts Friday were in the 40 percent to 60 percent range.

Near the jewelry counter, a 3-year-old girl with bleary eyes sat in a stroller. A man wearing an Atlanta Braves baseball cap stood next to her, fidgeting.

"Go ahead and get the booties," he said, his voice rising as his wife approached. "I'm getting (ticked) off."

Ed Peaslee woke up at 2:30 a.m. in Homeland and drove to the store to buy a Christmas present.

"I thought I'd never do it," he said as he walked out of the store and into the dark parking lot. "But I started five years ago, and I've kept it up."

J.C. Penney, too, opened its department stores at The Promenade in Temecula and elsewhere at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than last year. Many offered leather massage recliners for $299 -- after a $50 mail-in rebate -- compared with an original price of $799.

Other deals included 50 percent off toys and board games.

Such retail chains are counting on hordes of shoppers who have pulled back in recent months. Merchants need them to keep coming throughout the holiday season to meet their sales goals.

While top luxury stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue continue to do well, merchants that cater to middle- and lower-income shoppers have suffered as consumers struggle with higher gas and food prices as well as a slumping housing market.

While Black Friday is often the busiest day of the season, it's usually not an indicator of how retailers will fare in the season overall. The weekend accounts for only about 10 percent of overall holiday sales, but it does set the tone, because consumers will decide where to shop for the rest of the year based on what they see that day.

Analysts expect revenue growth to be the weakest in five years this holiday season. The National Retail Federation forecasts total revenue for the November-December period at $475 billion. That would make for a 4 percent gain from the same two months in 2006, the slowest growth since a 1.3 percent rise in 2002.

Holiday sales growth has averaged 4.8 percent a year over the last decade.

Recognizing a potentially tough shopping season ahead, stores began discounting weeks ago and brought in gimmicks such as expanded hours. A representative at Kohl's headquarters in Wisconsin said the earlier openings are intended to allow customers to shop there first before heading on to competitors that open at 5 or 6 a.m.

Kohl's and J.C. Penney weren't the only ones cutting deals before dawn on Friday. FAO Schwarz toy stores and Kmart discount stores across the United States offered special sales on Thanksgiving Day. CompUSA stores remaining after the chain's massive downsizing this year kicked off pre-Christmas sales at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Best Buy stores were closed for the holiday, but the chain offered discounts to online shoppers.

Shoppers waiting for the Murrieta Best Buy to open at 5 a.m. Friday said the deals on the Web site were middling compared with what was in the store.

Lori Honore, Lisa Brewer and Brewer's son, Chris, were among those who saved $450 on the Toshiba laptops. They drove from Lake Elsinore on Wednesday evening.

"It was fun last night," Honore said. "It was really cold the first night."

It was 4:30 a.m. and the temperature was still below 50 degrees. The "hippie-to-the-hip-hip-hop" of "Rapper's Delight" was thumping out across the parking lot, where more than 550 people where lined up.

The three were bundled up against the breeze, their lawn chairs lining the cordon between the strips of yellow plastic "caution" tape and the wall of the building. Honore and Chris Brewer were clutching fliers that store employees had handed out around 3 a.m. to the first few dozen people in line, guaranteeing that they'd be able to buy the desired computer or TV.

In front of Honore and the Brewers were three people who had been waiting since Wednesday morning.

"That's nuts," said Amy Tausch, a Lake Elsinore resident who arrived at 4:40 a.m. with her two sisters.

Tausch was hoping to save money on a digital still camera to photograph her 15-month-old daughter.

Shortly before 5 a.m., the line began to inch forward and Tausche followed the 580 people in front of her. On the speakers, The Sugarhill Gang gave way to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Store employees filed by, handing out fliers that detailed the sale.

"They're handing out ads like some of this stuff is still going to be left for us," Tausch cracked.

The Associated Press contributed to this article. Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.