Last year, 7 a.m. wasn't early enough.

Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke County will open its doors at 6 a.m. this Black Friday, the frenzied day after Thanksgiving when stores offer hefty discounts and door-buster sales to mark the start of the Christmas shopping season.

But 6 a.m. is not early compared with many national retailers that plan to turn on the lights Nov. 24, just after midnight. They're trying to entice shoppers as holiday discounting grows fiercer. Wal-Mart and some Internet businesses already have stepped up the drive for Christmas sales with recent heavy markdowns on merchandise.

At Tanglewood, some department stores, such as Belk, will open at 5 a.m. That's one reason the mall decided to open all of its stores an hour earlier this year.

"We had enough people here at the mall shopping early that some of our tenants could have benefited if they had opened at 6 a.m." last year, said Beckie Spaid, Tanglewood's marketing director. "We can capitalize upon as many people who do come out early."

These wee-morning hours offer a competitive edge for retailers.

Some are taking this competition to the extreme, creating Midnight Madness, the name for discounts that start the moment Black Friday starts. These retailers include some national outlet chains and traditional malls, such as Four Seasons Towne Center in Greensboro, N.C., which will open at 1 a.m. Nov. 24. Most retailers in the Roanoke Valley, however, don't plan to open at midnight.

More than half of the stores at Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets in Northern Virginia plan to open at midnight, and they include Gap, Williams-Sonoma and Nike. Chelsea Property Group of New Jersey owns the outlet, and it's testing these midnight openings at 25 outlets this year.

Some of these outlet discounts will include 20 percent off purchases at certain stores from midnight to 11 a.m., said Michele Rothstein, a spokeswoman for Chelsea Property Group. A complete list of the savings will go up on the company's Web site by Monday.

Many retailers see Midnight Madness as a way to create a certain buzz and excitement about shopping on Black Friday, a day that seems to have lost its popularity over the years. It is no longer the busiest shopping day of the Christmas season, according to the National Retail Federation.

Four Seasons' 1 a.m. opening makes way for a celebratory event called Rockin' Shoppin' Eve. From 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. at the mall, there will be free prizes and music entertainment along with shopping deals.

This is the first year that Four Seasons has hosted the event, and participation is voluntary for its stores. Last year, the mall opened at 7 a.m.

Its owner, General Growth Properties of Chicago, started this early-morning celebration at some of its malls several years ago.

"It's because of all of the big-boxes out there getting the jump-start on the traditional malls," said Four Seasons general manager David Huesser. "This is in response to all of those early openings. It puts everybody under one roof in a safe environment."

These early shopping events also drum up sales for retailers.

"It's turned into a non-event because the profits are so low," Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based market research firm, said of the frenzied Friday after Thanksgiving. "They need to figure out how to take this event and make it a pleasant experience."

Some retailers don't see the midnight Black Friday sales experience as pleasant for employee morale. Best Buy is an electronics retailer that opens at 5 a.m. on Black Friday.

Last year, some shoppers camped out in front of the Roanoke store, and a few arrived as early as 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to wait for Best Buy to open. By 5 a.m. on a chilly Black Friday last year, a line stretched from Best Buy to the nearby Target store.

"As a retailer you're only closed three days a year, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve," said Brian Lucas, a spokesman for Minneapolisbased Best Buy. "We like to let people have their Thanksgiving. At the least, they get a day with their families."

But even with a 5 a.m. opening, employees don't necessarily get much sleep during the night and morning before they have to be at the store. Most arrive at Best Buy as early as 2 a.m. to get ready for the shopping frenzy, Lucas said.

The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.