Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412270107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Phillip Oliver of Salem braved Tanglewood Mall the morning of Christmas Eve ``just to pick up some small stuff.''
He ended up buying a leather purse for his girlfriend from Courtney Neuberg at the Leggett store.
Neuberg, a full-time student at Cave Spring High School and a part-time sales associate at Leggett, was waiting for her break to finish her own shopping. Between school and work, she explained, she hadn't had much time to shop. School let out Thursday, so Neuberg came to the store early Friday to begin picking up presents.
Last-minute shoppers are ``mostly men,'' Neuberg said, and Friday, when offices were closed, seemed to be the busiest day.
Although business was relatively slow early Saturday, Neuberg was expecting the pace to pick up as the final hours of the shopping season approached.
John Montgomery, manager of the Leggett store, said shoppers Friday and Saturday were mostly men, but families tended to show up later in the day. He said the crowds usually mushroom between noon and 4:30 p.m.
``Traffic this year has been more constant,'' Montgomery said. People knew what they wanted to buy, so there was less looking and shopping around. People asked for the specific items they wanted.
Through Christmas Eve, he said, the shopping had been good.
Betty Jones, a sales associate at J.C. Penney at Tanglewood, said Friday was an especially big day, and ``we almost had to push the customers out at 9:30.''
John Kessler of Roanoke was at Jones' counter to buy a gold chain necklace for his wife, but he had done other shopping in advance. ``This was one of the last items on the list she gave me to go by,'' Kessler said.
The necklaces were on half-price sale and, with a coupon, Kessler got what he wanted for 70 percent off. ``It's a good deal,'' he said.
So good, in fact, that his father-in-law, Ron Potter of Roanoke, picked up a necklace for his own wife.
``I had no intention of getting a necklace,'' Potter said, ``so it will be a surprise to her. It was a surprise to me.''
Up in Penney's lingerie department, Rod Cooper of Newark, Del., was picking up some gowns for his two aunts. Cooper got ``home'' to Roanoke on Friday and began his Christmas shopping Saturday.
He didn't know if his aunts wanted gowns. But, Cooper said, ``they can bring it back if they don't like it.''
Steve Ireland of Salem was having problems sorting through the lingerie. ``My wife needs a gown,'' he explained. He conceded his shopping was a little late, but ``when you work from 8 to 5, this is all you've got.''
Nick Varney of Salem was disappointed when he reached Leggett's cosmetics counter, because the perfume-and-lotion set his daughter wanted had been sold out. His daughter is in her second year of pharmacy school in Richmond.
Perhaps he should have shopped earlier, Varney said as he settled for perfume alone, but he had been busy.
Steve Stilwell of Roanoke was on a ``guys' day out'' with his son, Scott, 4. Stilwell had finished shopping earlier and was buying some cosmetics as ``just stocking stuffers.'' Don Hampton of Roanoke was buying what he, too, called stocking stuffers. ``I'm just trying to catch up a few loose ends,'' he said, as he purchased a gift for his girlfriend.
Out in the mall, Peter Hite of Roanoke said he had expected the worst when he set out to do all of his shopping in one day, but ``It's not bad today; it's just not crowded.'' Actually, he conceded, he only had to buy some things for his wife because ``she does everything else.''
``There's not as many people as I expected,'' said Roanoke Vice Mayor John Edwards. ``I thought it would be really packed.''
Edwards was out buying a gift for his wife. ``That's the way men are,'' he said. ``They wait until the last minute.'' His wife, he said, had done her shopping and wrapped all the gifts. At that moment, she was home cooking for the holiday.
But Paul Coe of Smith Mountain Lake said the crowd was about what he had expected. Coe said he had already done the bulk of his Christmas buying, but he was still loaded down with last-minute gifts for his family.
by CNB