Dena Degidio plans to tell her child about the time Mommy waited in line at midnight while four months pregnant to get holiday shopping deals at Grove City's Old Navy outlet. "We got here at 10 p.m.," Degidio said Thursday night. "It's been crazy." The Black Friday shopping craze that drives millions to rise before dawn and wait in line for hours is fueled by a need ingrained since hunter-gatherer times, experts say. "Its almost instinctual to go out and get something that is going to keep the family going," said Paul Friday, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center psychologist. "It's really ingrained in us for survival. It's not post-Industrial Revolution. It dates back much longer." For the first time, Prime Outlets in Grove City opened at midnight for Black Friday, traditionally the day of the year when retailers' balance sheets go "into the black," meaning they're making profits. Pennsylvania State Police reported the midnight sale caused a 10-mile traffic jam on Interstate 79 North, lasting from 10 p.m. Thursday to 5:30 a.m. yesterday. People bailed from cars to walk up to a mile to the outlet mall. Malls throughout the region opened at 5 or 6 a.m., at least an hour earlier than last year. Consumers didn't disappoint. "The mall is doing fantastic. We're very pleased," said Dawn Gnieski, marketing director at Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg. "We had a doorbuster offer -- the first 500 people to the customer service counter received gold boxes filled with prizes and discount coupons, and one had a $500 shopping spree. They were gone in 20 minutes." This year, the National Retail Federation projects that holiday sales will increase 5 percent, to $457.4 billion. Most Black Friday shoppers are women, something Pitt's Friday says fits with the hunter-gatherer mentality. Throughout history, women traditionally filled the "gatherer" role. Women who could gather enough food to keep their families satisfied were looked upon more favorably, something that translates in modern days to getting the best deals, Friday said. "If (women) have a choice between shopping and getting deals, they'll go for the deals," he said. "It proves they're smart and bright and their clan, or family, will be able to get more than the other clans." Fear drives people to tolerate the crowds on Black Friday, especially in the year of PlayStation 3 and TMX Elmo, said Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. "It's the fear of missing out, and that's big this year because of limited toys and production," Yarrow said. "Three-hour sales operate on that same mentality, telling consumers that if you don't get here now, you'll miss out." People shop for the same reasons that they play sports, said Lars Perner, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the University of Southern California, who studies bargain hunters: They want to win. "Shopping itself is like a competition," Perner said. "When you get in the store you have to strategize: What's going to sell out first, and what's most important?" Among those playing along -- and getting the "high" that Perner says comes with finding bargains -- were Barbara Vernail and her sister, Vickie Rowe, both of Greensburg. They were up before 6 a.m. to shop. "It's fun," the sisters said. "It's almost like a game." Susan Denestra, of Erie, and her two daughters, Ellen, 22, and Lisa, 17, took the game to another level, forming a shopping strategy that included using walkie-talkie phones to communicate with each other at the Grove City outlets. "Any purchases yet, girls?" Susan radioed yesterday morning. "Yes, Mom, you have to get over to Liz Claiborne right now," Lisa responded. "Then we have to get to Aeropostale because the line is really long." Despite the psychological, instinctual need to shop, such shopping doesn't have to be material. In the last few years, an industry specializing in selling "experiences" has sprouted up in the U.S. Half the yearly business of Xperience Days -- a two-year-old company in New Jersey that sells everything from spa days to hot air balloon rides over the Laurel Highlands -- occurs in the four weeks leading up to Christmas. "People have so much stuff these days, and honestly, a CD player years ago was expensive and hard to come by, but now everyone has a DVD player, a TV and an MP3 player," said Robb Young, co-owner of Xperience Days. "We don't sell stuff -- we sell something people can enjoy together and share." Then there are those who completely avoided shopping yesterday. Buy Nothing Day was first organized 14 years ago in Vancouver and was made international by Kalle Lasn, of Adbusters Media Foundation. The "consumer detox" is celebrated across the U.S. and in 65 countries. "I think one of the longer-term consequences of Buy Nothing Day won't just be to change Black Friday, but for us to start taking back Christmas," Lasn said. "For us to say, 'I don't want to go out in the malls this year, I don't want to max out my credit card, I don't want to participate in this thing that just stresses me out,' it's a nice way to go head-on with this ugly consumerfest called Black Friday."

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