Snow also is turning Black Friday white, with weather, and police warning of temporary freeway closures and intervals of low-to-no visibility. It is a day that, so far, has been marked by holiday shopping discounts,

Based on visits to a Target and Walmart in Livonia and Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Black Friday lacked the frenzied scenes of previous years but they drew respectable crows. It was mainly 30 years of tradition that brought three friends out to a Target and Walmart in Livonia at 6 a.m. on Black Friday.

If history is any guide and advertisers are to be believed, the best bargains still are to be had from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, a four-day period known in the retail world as BFCM for short.

Retailers in the U.S. rewarded shoppers who ventured out for Black Friday with giveaways and bigger-than-expected discounts on a day that still reigns as the much-hyped kickoff of the holiday shopping season despite losing some luster.

Black Friday crowds aren't what they used to be, but shoppers still turned out at brick-and-mortar stores in large numbers this year.