Hitting Black

THOMASVILLE, Nov 29, 2008 (Thomasville Times-Enterprise - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- JCP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Neither the rain nor the economy kept Thomasville from participating in the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday.

Shoppers could be found in downtown Thomasville around lunchtime, darting in and out of stores with umbrellas or bags over their heads.

Annie Christenson, of Tallahassee, said she wished it was not raining, but she wasn't going to let a little wet dampen her holiday shopping spirit.

"We came to look around," Valerie Kmetz, of Las Vegas, Nev., said as she and friends window shopped. "We love Thomasville."

Local retailers said business was better than they expected.

"Today's been pretty good," Kate Weisenborn, store manager of Hicks Clothing Company, said. "It started off busier than I expected. The rain may have deterred some people, but I think things will pick up after lunch and we'll have a good weekend. It has definitely been more steady than I thought it would be: there was someone waiting for me at the door and another retailer told me it was the same for them."

The Bookshelf was filled with shoppers, buying everything from children's books to the Twilight saga.

"Twilight is still our biggest seller," Katie Chastain, owner, said. "A lot of people are buying the series as gifts."

Chastain said business was steady throughout the morning and looked to be the same in the afternoon.

"There's more people here than I expected," Chastain said. "I think a lot of people decided not to go to Tallahassee or somewhere else to shop; we have more people staying here and shopping locally."

Lorna McCollum was buying books for her granddaughter.

"I'm trying to take care of all the people on my list who are from out-of-town first," she said.

Another shopper said the weather might be "nasty outside but the atmosphere inside is cheery."

Across town at the Gateway Shopping Center, JC Penney employee Shundra Lewis was getting ready to wrap up her shift.

She came in at 3:15 a.m. for the store's 4 a.m. opening and was getting off at 2 p.m., once its "doorbuster" sale ended.

"We had a nice little crowd waiting for us on the sidewalk when we opened," Lewis said. "They seemed to know what they wanted and went straight to it."

Danielle Roberson Kaiser shopped at Belk with her mother.

"I'm a Thomasville native but I live in Atlanta now," she said. "We're down for Thanksgiving and are doing some shopping. Right now, we're taking advantage of the sales and she's buying me several pairs of boots for Christmas. Then, we're shopping for the rest of the family."

Kaiser said she enjoys shopping in Thomasville.

"There are good deals here, better than in Atlanta," she said. "The shoe selection is fantastic!"

But, the current economic downturn was evident Friday in both merchants and shoppers.

"People are still going to shop, but I think they will shop a little more carefully and not buy as much extra stuff," McCollum said.

Weisenborn said her store has been offering good deals to customers.

"We've tried to keep the inventory the same as far as offering quality merchandise you don't see in department stores and other places, but we have been offering discount prices," she said. "People are coming in for the sales. We've had some good buys in our store that you wouldn't normally see."

This was Chastain's first year in business so she could not compare this year's holiday shopping to last year.

"October was slow, but for the last few weeks we've seen pretty decent sales," she said. "We hope people continue to support their local stores."

Gene Kowalski, store manager of Belk, said the day was "steady," but "not as crazy as it has been in years past."

"Shoppers are looking for sharp discounts and we are delivering with savings not seen in a long time," he said. "We have Polo on sale and Dooney & Bourke is 40 percent off."

Kowalski said, with the long holiday season and reduced inventories, shoppers may want to try to check items off their lists earlier than usual.

"Customers may want to shop earlier to ensure that they get what they want," he said. "With discount prices now as good as after Christmas sales and reduced inventories in most stores, shopping earlier means a better chance of finding the items you want in the sizes you need."

To see more of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesenterprise.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, Thomasville Times-Enterprise, Ga. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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