Updated 5:05 a.m. Most early morning shoppers today said they were glad for “Black Friday” sales. For some, however, the economic downturn made today’s discounts especially important.
Many said they hoped to spend less this year on Christmas gifts. And those who were looking to fork over as much money as always said they would work hard to be thrifty, with a little help from stores’ day-after-Thanksgiving price reductions.
All of the shoppers interviewed by the newspaper said they did not plan to use credit cards as they invaded the Tanger Outlet Center in Tuscola, which opened at midnight, or the Cross County Mall in Mattoon, where some stores let customers in before 4 a.m.
“There will be some cutbacks, but not big cutbacks,” said Tammy Rentschler of Mattoon, who hit the Tuscola stores at midnight with her two teenage daughters and their friends.
Rentschler said she was paying for Christmas presents like she always does – with money from their bank’s Christmas club savings account – and emphasizing “more planning and more budgeting” in the aisles and check-out lines. “I’ll be a little more conservative, watching what I spend, spreading it out,” she said.
The economy certainly was on the mind of Dorothy Honn of Mattoon, who ventures to stores early every Black Friday with her daughter, Mary Hawkins, and her grandchildren, Blake Hawkins, 17, and Alicia Hawkins, 16. “People are really in dire straits this year,” Honn said at about 4 a.m. at the Cross County Mall.
“We’ve had to cut down a lot this year,” said Mary Hawkins.
For the first time, her two children – both of whom started jobs this year – will be spending their own money on Christmas presents. “This year, we had to set a budget (and) get the cheapest sales,” said Blake Hawkins.
Former Charleston resident Buffie Miller of Tuscaloosa, Ala., who visited family in the area for Thanksgiving, went to Tanger’s Black Friday midnight opening last year, and she came back again today. She said the economy “is definitely making us want to go out for the sales more tonight and tomorrow … We wouldn’t have come out if there weren’t good sales.”
She said she hopes to reduce the number of presents to one per person this year, a shift from previous years’ practices. However, her family is not sacrificing their charitable giving this year, as they are still participating in the Angel Tree gift-giving program “for those who are less fortunate,” said Miller.
Other Black Friday shoppers said the state of the economy would not affect their buying and giving this year.
“We always do the day-after-Thanksgiving,” said Paula Olmsted of Charleston, who went to stores before dawn today with her daughter, Paige Olmsted, a freshman at Charleston High School, along with Lisa Auten of Charleston and her daughter, CHS senior Megan Auten. The four of them have been early-bird Black Friday shoppers for 11 years. Paige Olmsted was 4 when the tradition began.
They map out stores and products they hope to buy in advance, and then stick to their schedule.
Paula Olmsted said the addition of two new babies actually means they need purchase more gifts this year.
Doug and Julie Sloat of Charleston today made their first-ever pre-dawn Black Friday outing after reading about sales in newspaper advertisements. Almost all the items remaining on their Christmas lists were to be discounted today.
Doug Sloat said he has a secure job at Eastern Illinois University, while Julie Sloat is retired, so they were not as worried about the effect of impending recession on their own shopping.
“But it worries us” how the economy is affecting other people, Doug Sloat also said.
Jennifer McFarland of Effingham returned to the Tuscola outlet mall’s midnight opening for the second time in as many years, with her mother and some other friends in tow. She said plans to spend more money this year because of the addition of several new family members.
Even so, she also hoped to be thrifty – if for no other reason than to keep her husband happy.
“He’s tight,” she said with a laugh.
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Stanley Stetson wrote on Nov 28, 2008 8:18 PM: