Black Friday bargain hunters prepare for early start

BRISTOL, Va. – Lonnie Crane spent the better part of his holiday visit to the Tri-Cities shopping for holiday deals. And not just for presents, but for sheets and calendars, photos with Santa and all those items he calls “essentials.”

“I guess it’s a little Scroogish, shopping for yourself this time of year,” he said Wednesday at the Bristol Mall, 7-year-old daughter, Ciela, in tow. “But you gotta be smart now, the economy the way it is.”
Crane lost his job this month, right after he racked up a $17,000 bill for gall bladder surgery. That’s not to mention his recent divorce.

“It’s been the worst of the worst,” he said of 2009. “I owe money on my mortgage and December’s is due in a couple days.”

Still, he said, he’s not skipping Christmas; he’s actually planning to give more than usual.

“Just $12!” he exclaimed of a fluffy pink comforter for Ciela. 

He’ll be coming back Friday.

The National Retail Federation predicts that even more bargain hunters will be shopping this year than during Black Friday’s of yore, suggesting that 134 million shoppers will make the most of holiday weekend sales. That’s about six million more than last year.

The industry group’s survey predicts 10 percent of those shoppers will get to their store of choice between midnight and 3 a.m., and another 29 percent arriving between 4 and 6 a.m.
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Local department store managers actually look forward to the hordes of crazed shoppers that descend upon the Bristol Mall in the wee morning hours every Black Friday. And they claim it’s not just for the profits.

“I’ve spent 21 years doing it, and I’m still excited,” Sears store manager Priscilla Hagy said. “But you really have to love retail.”

Sears and other mall stores operate their biggest shopping day of the year with a carefully choreographed routine. The frantic moments before the clock strikes 4 a.m. involves countdowns and walkie talkies, every employed associate on duty and displays that had been arranged for days.

“They start lining up as early as 3:15,” said Gary Childers, manager of the mall’s JCPenny, watching the last few displays roll by and into their stations Wednesday afternoon. “The line forms straight out into the parking lot. Then they come in with a mission, with coupons and cut-outs. They’re definitely not just grabbing randomly.”

Donna Ferguson, of Marion, stopped by the mall Wednesday to create a plan of attack for Friday.

“I’m just scoping things out, seeing what’s out here,” she said, giggling and glancing over her shoulder. “I’m also sneaking for a gift for my husband. I’ll come back and get it Friday when he’s not with me.”

Ferguson calls Black Friday “last minute shopping” since she started marking off her Christmas list in June. Now she’s looking for a few more things for her two grandkids, clothing mostly, “but of course I’ve got to get Dora the Explorer.”
“When it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s family first,” she said, suggesting the holidays in her family are insulated from economy woes.

Local retailers are betting most are like Ferguson, so they’re expecting even bigger crowds than previous years – in part despite and in part because – of the down economy.

Still, none confessed concern over potential bodily harm in the rush, just one year after a New York man was trampled to death in a stampede of unruly Walmart shoppers.

“Our Bristol customers are very, very orderly,” Childers said.

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