Americana Manhasset Offers Deals on Black Friday

The Americana Manhasset mall was packed with local shoppers Friday to take advantage of slashed prices and special deals on a variety of items.

One store that saw an increase in sales was ILORI Boutique, where customers received a free lens with the purchase of single vision glasses.

"It's very exciting," said Rob Lyons, a manager at the store.  "I've been working Black Friday since I was 16 years old, and this is the day with all the buzz. The store is doing great today."

Lyons said the hottest eyeglass selections included Prada, Chanel and Ray-Ban.

The store surging with the most holiday shoppers, however, was the Apple Store, who was offering $101 off MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac.

Funky Monkey, the Americana Manhasset branch of the established Wheatley Plaza store, was armed with plenty of gift selections for kids up to 8 years old. The store offered coupons, and up to 20 percent off on select merchandise.

"We've been doing pretty good today, but Black Friday is mostly about the big boxes," said Arnold Maggi, part of the store's management team, who migrated back from retirement in Florida to assist with the opening of the store.

"Tomorrow will be our biggest day, and we have a lot of the hottest toys," he said, mentioning the importance of upcoming “Small Business Saturday,” a promotion sponsored by American Express encouraging localized holiday shopping on Saturday.

Maggi said that this year's sought-after items included "Angry Birds" toys and Mario Kart RC cars.

The arrival of the Jordan Retro-3 basketball shoe fueled early morning sales at Sneakerology.

"We sold out at 9:38 after opening at 9:30," said Lorrie, a manager at the store.

The store’s sales include up to 15 percent off regularly priced items, excluding the aforementioned Jordans.

"With Black Friday sales, we're bumpin’,” she said. "We've been very busy.”