It takes a special kind of person.

“Definitely,” said Belk store manager Gwendolyn Ganzaroli.

This breed gives a new meaning to early to bed, early to rise.

“It takes a determined person,” said Machelle Thomas of Union. “You have to be determined to get what you want to get.”

She was one of the many people in this special sect Friday morning.

She was a Black Friday bargain hunter.

And she definitely wasn’t alone.

Ganzaroli said the line outside her store Friday morning when the Belk doors opened at 4 a.m. to kick off the Christmas shopping season stretched some 30 people at least. Finding a parking lot at the new Union Walmart Supercenter wasn’t an easy task either as people started piling in well before the 5 a.m. start time of the department store’s Black Friday sale.

“There were people in here at midnight,” said store manager Barry Medford.

Shoppers were lined up at nearly all of the Walmart checkouts just before the sale started, waiting to check out and possibly head to another store or even go home to catch a few more winks of sleep. Carts and arms were full of items, from big to small — computers, TVs, clothes and other deals — at both stores.

It seemed to be the same frenzy and excitement that surrounds the biggest shopping day of the year as in holiday seasons past, but Ganzaroli and Medford said there was something a little different about their customers this go around.

“The difference is the feel of the customer,” said the Belk store manager. “They’re shopping.”

In one of the most severe economic downturns the United States has seen in several decades and unemployment at 10.2 percent, big things aren’t necessarily expected for retail sales this holiday season.

According to reports by the Associated Press, many analysts think the total holiday sales for this year to be about even from last year. But retailers have armed themselves with leaner inventories and more practical goods to reflect shoppers’ new psyche.

And it’s a psyche the two Union stores managers said seems to be brighter in 2009.

“I think people are in a good mood,” Medford said. “Everybody’s happy.”

Even with it being that early in the morning, Ganzaroli said most of her customers Friday had smiles on their faces walking in and out of Belk.

“It’s more of an upturn this year from last year,” she said. “The customers have more holiday spirit.”

Until the sales receipts are counted, though, the impact of Black Friday shoppers won’t fully be known. But that wasn’t stopping any of them for seeking out what they came for.

“Bargains,” Ganzaroli said.

That included little 1-year-old Kaliyah Holland who was fast asleep on her mother Machelle’s shoulder as they walked around Belk.

“We started last night at 11 p.m.,” Thomas said.

They were at Toys R’ Us in Spartanburg in time for the toy store’s Black Friday sale.

“She was playing with every musical toy she could get her hands on,” Thomas said, adding the toddler got a little fussy while at the Spartanburg store but a snack was able to calm her down.

After all, they were there to get at least some of her Christmas presents.

Belk was their second stop of the day. They braved the chilly late-November temperatures to wait in line for two hours before the store opened.

As for what their plans were next, Thomas wasn’t sure. She knew more shopping was in the cards but wasn’t sure how much.

“At least two more,” Thomas said, adding Walmart probably would be her next stop. After that, however, she thought it might be good to take a cue from her daughter who didn’t stir once while she spoke.

Their beds were calling.