My son in law and I decided to hit the black friday at Cabelas at 5am and had a similar experience to your Walmart expedition. He was looking for a pair of nice hunting binoculars that were about 1/2 off, and I was along for the ride. Cabelas was giving the first 600 people some type of gift which included a rifle. So we got there about about 4:45 am and they had a line of maybe 1000 that circled almost the entire store. As we walked towards the back of the line we could see that many had been camping out for much of the night, lawn chairs, picnic tables, and lots of fast food remnants littered the area. It had an eerie feel walking to the back of the line, kind of felt like we were refugees that were late to the crossing boat! Once they opened the doors the line moved fast, and there were plenty of the binocular remaining that my SIL wanted. I ended up buying 10 boxes of Remington 9mm shells that were on sale at $11.99 box with an additional $5 rebate, making them 6.99 a box. They seemed to be well staffed and check out was fast. I would also try it next year, but I have read where Bass Pro Shop has bought them out so it should be interesting if they keep this store in Phoenix. Anyway after Cabelas we drove over to Dicks Sporting Goods to get some rifle ammo for my SIL that was on Black Friday sale, and that place was practically empty.
