ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
POST-HOLIDAY BARGAINS await consumers who didn't want to pay pre-Christmas sale prices on gifts this year. Retailers aren't expected to match last year's sales figures.
Need decorating tips for next Christmas?
Try standing in a checkout line with Mary Abdullah and Lottie Terrell.
"Well, I'm going to wrap this all over around my house," said Abdullah, holding up a garland of plastic pine boughs. "And these little things'' - she held up a sprig of berries and pinecones - ``will add some color."
She pushed her cart forward a few inches, narrowly avoiding an MJ Designs employee who was picking up a box of lights lying on the floor.
"And this one woman, she was telling us how she decorated her Christmas tree with just angels this year," Abdullah continued. "It sounded so pretty."
Terrell nodded and shifted her armful of gift bags. "You get some good ideas, here in line," she said.
You got some good bargains, too, if you hit the day-after-Christmas sales Tuesday morning. Places such as MJ Designs at Towne Square Shopping Center in Roanoke, which carried a large inventory of Christmas decorations, were swamped by mid-morning with shoppers looking to pay half price or less for leftover holiday supplies.
"I didn't spend as much for Christmas this year, so I can spend more now," said Abdullah, of Roanoke, whose cart was loaded with garlands and lights and red bows.
Analysts say cautious shoppers like Abdullah are the reason for the sluggish Christmas season and the substantial post-holiday markdowns. Nationally and in Virginia, analysts predict retailers will be lucky to match last year's sales figures for the Christmas season. More likely, holiday sales will be below last year, when shoppers spent $343 billion nationally and $6.3 billion in Virginia.
Monty Bibb, manager of Stein Mart at Tanglewood Mall, said business already seems to be looking up.
"It's been wonderful today," he said. "I can't ever remember a day after Christmas where I've seen more sales than returns. But we had it today."
The mall wasn't as busy Tuesday as some people had expected, he said, but he thinks the crowds will pick up Saturday, when more people are off work.
The scene seemed to be much the same at Valley View Mall, where the parking lot was full but not packed by mid-morning. Tom Tyree, manager of the Leggett store, said customers had been coming in steadily since the store opened at 8.
"Surprisingly, we've had very few returns," he said.
Customers began to gather at MJ Designs well before the store opened at 8, said store manager Cathie Shelor. She shook her head, wondering how people could begin planning for next Christmas already.
"August," Shelor said. "I'll start again in August. If I were off today, there's no way I'd be in the store this early."
Early is, of course, a relative term.
"I should have been here earlier, that's for sure," said Lois Dunham of Roanoke. It was 10:30 a.m., and she had just arrived. A lot of the best stuff already had been snapped up, she said. And she wasn't sure whether the rolls of wrapping paper she had picked up were worth the wait.
"I'm liable to put this stuff down when I get up there," she said, nodding toward the checkouts, "and say the heck with it."
To wait or not to wait: That was, for many shoppers, the question of the morning.
"When you've got kids, you try to get the deals when you can find them," said Debbie Dillon of Franklin County. She guided her cart, piled with wrapping paper and ornaments, through the crowd. "And then when you pull it out next Christmas, you can think, 'Oh, that's the great bargain I got last year.'''
Standing at the very end of what seemed to be the longest checkout line in the store, Carole Yates of Roanoke looked down at the Santa candle holder in her hand.
"I wanted this ornament. I really wanted it," she said. "But now I'm debating. I'm not real sure this is worth it."
She looked at the line of shopping carts stretching out in front of her, then at the few items in her own hands.
"It's ridiculous, it's absurd, it's insane," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Shoppers wait in long linesby CNBTuesday morning at MJ Designs to buy Christmas decorations that have
been discounted. color.