Local shoppers get early start
Area bargain-hunters gathered before dawn at the Uniontown Mall, Wal-Mart, Kmart and other local retail stores to get a head start on the holiday shopping season, which opened Friday. Shoppers pushed carts burgeoning with Christmas treasures from aisle to aisle, hoping to take advantage of early bird specials on everything from DVD players to lava lamps.
“It was crazy when we first opened the doors,” said a Wal-Mart employee, who declined to identify herself. “Management had to run so they didn’t get knocked down.
“There was a line all the way past lawn and garden, wrapped around the building.”
While the nation’s economy continues to struggle and questions about consumer confidence abound, locally, consumers seemed eager to put economic woes on the back burner and delve into the holiday fray.
The line outside Wal-Mart, which formed as the store prepared to open its doors at 6 a.m., had to be let into the store in stages to keep customers from trampling each other, the employee said. According to the employee, as customers found their way into the store, a fight between two men in line broke out and security had to be called in. According to one of her co-workers, shoppers seemed at an all-time high.
“We had a videotape of people coming in at 6 a.m. when the store opened and we were watching it in the back and it was just unbelievable,” she said. “The layaway line was all the way through layaway, down the aisle, all the way through infants.”
Other area stores reported similar trends as Christmas shopping began.
“We actually had shoppers in here at 3 a.m. getting ready to make their purchases for the 5 a.m. sale,” said Christy Spiker, an assistant manager at the Uniontown Super Kmart.
Spiker said that sales seemed to be up, compared to the day after Thanksgiving last year, and specials and hot electronics and toys helped boost sales.
“The hottest thing going this year is a real fur kitty, Hasbro Fur Real Friends,” she said.
She also said that DVD players and other electronics seemed to be early favorites for the holiday season.
At Spencer’s in the Uniontown Mall, store manager Bobbi Sargent said that sales were up nearly 30 percent and lava lamps, priced at $20, were the hot items of the day.
Twila Costabile of Ohiopyle said she was looking for new electronics for Christmas gifts and that she shops every year the day after Thanksgiving.
“I came out for the early-bird deals,” said Costabile, whose two daughters, Tasha and Lindsey, help her spend her money. Costabile said she could afford to spend a little more this year, thanks to a Christmas club program to save for holiday shopping.
According to the Gallup Organization, which surveyed 3,000 consumers, Americans are projected to spend $769 each on holiday gifts. That number is down about $51 from last year, which was lower than 2000 and 1999.
Another study, conducted by the Washington-based National Retail Federation, forecast total holiday retail sales to increase by 4 percent to roughly $209.25 billion. That would be the weakest increase since 1997.
Those projections didn’t seem to quell the holiday spirit locally, though, as shoppers took advantage of sale prices to buy high-priced items like televisions and CD players.
Bobbi Campbell made two trips to Wal-Mart, once to purchase two DVD players for about $50 apiece and again to buy a videocassette recorder. She said that while she usually doesn’t shop right after Thanksgiving, she thinks she will spend more this Christmas than last year and isn’t concerned about the current economic downturn.
Deborah Stanley of Republic agreed.
“I always wind up spending more each year,” she said.
Stanley had two carts loaded with gifts for her children.
Juanita McClay of Markleysburg also was buying for children, her nephews.
As she waited patiently in line to check out six remote-control toy vehicles at Wal-Mart, she wondered how she would get them home. Her cart was piled so high, she had to peek around to steer.
“I came in to see if they had them and, boy, did they have them,” she said. “Now I don’t know how I am going to get them home.”
While hot, high-priced items were moving, traditional holiday favorites were selling as well.
Staci Natale, manager of the Bath and Body Works at the Uniontown Mall, said that when the store opened, the line backed out the door.
“Until noon, when we had an extra 15 percent off, you couldn’t see the end of the line,” she said. “Oh my God, from 7 a.m. to noon, it’s been crazy.”
Natale said that on a regular day, the store operates with three employees. Today, nine were busy assisting customers. Natale said that she thought things were particularly busy this year because of the shortened time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
James Gorvy, manager of The Bon Ton, agreed.
“We only have four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year,” he said. He, too, said that the store increased personnel for the day and that all available employees would be working.
According to Gorvy, leather jackets and sweaters are moving quickly, and early holiday sales seem better than last year’s. While the Thanksgiving weekend is the unofficial start of the shopping season, according to the Associated Press, it is no longer the busiest shopping period. Last year, the week before Christmas was busier.