Mashantucket - Rather than the fistfights and stampedes often associated with Black Friday sales, the Thursday night opening of the Tanger Factory Outlet Center at Foxwoods Resort Casino provided a calmer shopping experience for patrons.

General Manager John Dolishny said that most stores in the center, which opened in May, were scheduled to be open Thursday night for Moonlight Madness at 6 p.m. Some stores, such as Vineyard Vines and Nike, elected to open at 10 p.m. A sign at H&M indicated the company was opening at midnight Thursday to give its employees a well-deserved day off.

Many other major retailers such as Kohl’s, Macy’s and Target also opened at 6 p.m. for overnight shopping.

Keith Danielson of Montville works at both the Calvin Klein and Coach stores in the outlets. He said he has always worked both Thanksgiving and Black Friday because many retailers need every employee to work both days.

“I will be working at Calvin Klein from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., I’m working at Coach from 2 a.m. to 11 a.m., and then coming back to Calvin Klein from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.,” he said. “And I’m working Wal-Mart at 6 a.m., so I’m gonna die.”

He said the Coach store was increasing the discount percentage on the clearance rack items for the night, and the CEO of Coach was expected to attend the event as well.

The center was open before the official start of Moonlight Madness for patrons to stroll past the storefronts and do some window shopping among the brightly colored banners featuring the Black Friday doorbusters.

The Old Navy outlet store in the center, which opened its doors a little early, participated in the franchise’s “Overnight Millionaire” campaign, and sales representatives were waiting at the door with game cards for the first 50 people in line.

Kristen Perron of Putnam decided to visit Tanger at the last minute, but she has been shopping on Black Friday for 15 years and wanted to catch some of the deals at Columbia and New York and Company before heading to other local stores around midnight and then to the outlets in Kittery, Maine.

“I’m not going to come home until tomorrow at noontime,” she said.

The outlet was still relatively quiet around 5 p.m. Perron said people still might not know about the outlet center and instead go to the other major stores like Wal-Mart.

“I thought there’d be more people,” she said. “We came early and figured we’d do a little gambling, and then we’ll go shopping.”

“Wal-Mart’s always fun, though, because you have fistfights coming up to the register,” Danielson added.

The casino also shifted some of its own hours to accommodate the influx of shoppers at the outlet stores Thursday night. Ashley Polo, director of e-commerce, social media and public relations at Foxwoods, said the Veranda Café would be open from 6 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday, including a Moonlight Buffet from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“They’ve even made an espresso martini so people who (were) there very late can get some caffeine and enjoy some more shopping,” she said.

The outlets will be open until 11 p.m. on Black Friday with a free concert by Erika Van Pelt and Ryan Faraday from 1 to 4 p.m.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411