Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 27, 1993 TAG: 9311270135
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Free coffee brewed in the vestibule. Barney, in all his purple incarnations, spilled from shelves. Dallas Cowboys team jackets filled their roundabout rack, rock-bottom $49.97 prices scribed on their tags.
At 7 a.m., General Manager Dave Easterly took one last look around, then threw open the doors.
Ten minutes later, the jacket rack was picked as clean as a turkey carcass.
And so it went Friday as a swarm of Christmas shoppers moved through New River Valley stores with thrift and precision.
They launched the traditional retail holiday season with the 5:30 a.m sound of their alarms. They came from Pulaski, they came from Floyd.
They came from Tennessee.
They pulled their Fords and their Chevys into the black-topped lots at Hills, at Rose's, at Wal-Mart. As a chilly mist spit on the day's dawn, they revised their shopping lists. They reviewed their stacks of sales ads - some for up to 50 and 70 percent off. And then they began.
"I came all the way down here for these jackets," said Tammy Crigger of Pulaski. "I can't believe it."
"Idiots, aren't we?" laughed shopper Kathy Dalton.
Next to the early-morning coffee pot at Hills, sisters Judy Ozmar and Doris Bland explained their family's holiday tradition.
"We meet here first because Penney's doesn't open till 8," explained Ozmar, in town from Virginia Beach.
"Mama's over at Big Lots," she said, nodding across the parking lot.
"But we're getting ready to go over to Penney's," said Bland, of Dublin.
Just as the store opened, Dorothy Howell tapped on the glass door. She'd just dropped grandson David Vest off at Christiansburg High School for his basketball scrimmage, then stopped by Penney's to pick up a free gold Christmas ornament. They open like ring boxes, and have free prizes inside.
Howell won $100!
"Well," said the lady behind her, who only got a $5 coupon, "We tried."
Between the free coffee and the ornament giveaways, retailers are expecting a good shopping season - despite continued high unemployment in the New River Valley.
"We are cautiously optimistic," said Tom Sheets, general manager of the New River Valley Mall. "So far, out of the blocks, we are pleased."
"We're reordering things," said Jane Bonomo, owner of the four-store chain that sells high-quality women's clothing. "So far, so good."
Easterly credited the dank weather - combined with great sales - for Friday's big turnout.
"It's Christmastime weather," he said. "The weather's kind of cold and drizzly, and it puts you in the shopping mood."
Although the day after Thanksgiving is always the big seasonal kickoff, many area residents have been bargain-shopping for weeks.
Kmart, now 18 months in its new, high-profile Christiansburg location, has seen a recent jump in sales, and is probably 20 percent ahead of last year, said General Manager Greg Edel.
And folks clearly have been picking up bargains at the mall, said Sheets.
"They started early," said Kathy Dickerson, senior merchandiser for the women's division at Penney's.
Easily the hottest-selling items Friday were team jackets and Talking Barney, both on sale throughout the area.
And, judging from the out-of-town reaction, they're hot everywhere else, too.
Shopper Charlotte Robinson, of Maryville, Tenn., clutched her Talking Barney.
"I've been looking and looking and saw this in the paper," said Robinson, in town to visit relatives for the holidays. "They're sold out everywhere in Tennessee."
by CNB