In the tiny hours of this morning, all was not quiet.

With Black Friday fever in full swing, soca music blasted out from a pair of large speakers outside the Phoenix Store, waking early-morning campers from their sleepy daze.

Just before 4am, the queues stretched down Reid Street and a large screen projected images from a live camera inside the store. People waited patiently for the doors to swing open so they could to make the mad rush upstairs to Annex Toys, grab their items and move on.

DJ Bakari “IBreeze” Smith rose from his bed at 1am to play music for the Black Friday crowd. “It’s always different coming out this early, but there’s a lot of people and I ‘vibe’ off their energy,” he said. “They keep me going. I’m going to play a lot of high-energy music this morning, a lot of Top 40, a lot of fist-pumping tunes to get people going.”

Ashley Berkeley had been in the Phoenix queue since 1.30am with her mother, Michelle. Buying toys for the kids was their top priority. “We are getting a dollhouse, Barbie, Dora the Explorer doll for my daughters Aaliyah and Ariana,” Ashley said. “This is my third year. We always go here and then we go Gibbons after.”

Ms Berkeley faced a long day ahead — after shopping she had to go and get her daughters ready for school and then spend a day at work. It was all worth it, though. “I’m all about getting a sale,” she said. “If I can get a sale, I’m there.”

George Grundmuller, the president and CEO of Phoenix Stores, was in an upbeat mood, walking around chatting to customers in the queue. He said that among the most popular items would be the appliances as well as Christmas treats, including cookies, Quality Street and Cadbury’s chocolate. As for the toys, anything related to the Disney film Frozen were the big hitters. “It was such a popular film, I don’t think the Frozen toys will last any longer than two hours,” he said.

Speaking of how he thought the economy may affect sales, Mr Grundmuller added: “We give a lot back to the community today with huge discounts — the biggest discounts of the year for us — and so I think people will come out in droves. Everybody’s having fun and smiling and cracking a joke.”

As the doors opened at 4am, a stream of people made a beeline for the escalator to the toy department. A few were disappointed that the items they wanted had disappeared in just a few minutes. Stacey Pitcher was seen with a basket full of presents that she bought for her nieces and nephews. “This doll set was actually the last one on the shelf and I was straight in the door when it opened,” she said. “I got some stocking fillers from Frozen and I got some Lego.

“I have a strategic plan: after here, I will go to Gibbons Company then maybe Masters later on in the day. I do it for the savings and it seems to be turning into quite a big event in Bermuda now.”

Shopper Vanessa Bean usually spends Black Friday in Nashville, Tennessee, but decided to check it out in Bermuda for the first time this year. “It’s totally different,” she said. “It’s so much easier because there’s not as many people. I went to Best Buy in Nashville and there must have been 2,500 people in line. This is my first Black Friday here and there aren’t as many people as I thought there would be.”

Across the street, Brown & Co was full of shoppers taking advantage of a 40 per cent off, store-wide discount for the early birds. Nicole Warren, general manager at Brown & Co, said: “Our team is totally psyched. All the shopping baskets are gone, so there are a few hundred people in the store right now and it’s 25 minutes after the hour. People have plans, people have maps; it’s really funny. Families are coming early in the morning and people are taking days off work now to come out, which is quite noticeable.”

Ms Warren said the most popular items so far had been home décor and large ticket items.

Cedtara Simons was one of the first people to queue at Digicel and had been there since 9.30am the previous morning. Clearly tired, she said: “I got my Samsung [Galaxy] S5, now we are just waiting for the raffles. I’m going to go home, enjoy my phone and sleep.”

According to one customer, some people arrived on the scene late and jumped the queue, which was frustrating for those who had camped overnight.

Amber Lopes had been queuing at the store since 9pm the previous day and stayed awake all night to get her iPhone 6. “I’m tired but you only live once,” she said.

Popular devises at the store included the Samsung Galaxys and the iPhones — the S5 and S5 Mini as well as the 5C, 5S and 6 models of the iPhone.

It was a lot quieter down the road at CellOne as the store had held a weeklong sale before and had also been open since midnight. The staff sat around looking a little tired and clearly enjoying the quiet. “Last year was a lot busier,” Julliana Rayner, a sales representative, said. “We did the sale all week. Each day had a feature phone and you had to come a specific day for a specific phone. At the end of it, by the time I got here at midnight last year, there was a line going all the way down the road down to Crisson’s jewellery store.”

Jeremy Pitcher had his arms full of bags as he emerged from Gibbons Company home store in Washington Mall. He finished working at The Beach Bistro at 4am and headed straight to the store. “I got some nice deals and I saved four hundred and something dollars. I got some duvet covers, duvets and feather nest pillows. It was a busy night at The Beach and a busy night in town.”