Romanians flocked to get discounted products from local retailers Flanco, Altex and Media Galaxy during the three - day Black Friday extended week-end, and some retailers already announced sales  of over EUR 12 million each, according to AFP.

Flat screen TVs, refrigerators, washing machines,  laptops and tablets ranked among favorite purchases during the week-end.  Flanco announced sales of RON 55 million (EUR 12.1 million), while Media Galaxy and Altex together had sales of EUR 15 million. Altex' sales on Friday stayed at  some EUR 6 million. Flanco managed to double its 2011 Black Friday sales and exceed its EUR 10 million target.

The higher than expected number of visitor has blocked the sites of some retailers,while  other sites could barely cope with the high number of buyers online at the same time. In case of some online stores, many products were sold even before the early morning hours of Friday.

Retailer eMag is yet to report its sales, but it already said it had over 80,000 orders on Friday alone. The retailer added more products on discount after selling the initial discounted stocks early during the day.

The Black Friday discount concept was taken from the American market and it traditionally marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com