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Putting it all on the line

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published November 25, 2006

Pulling out the stops with deep discounts, giveaways and prize drawings, Tampa Bay retailers kicked off their holiday season earlier than ever on what's called Black Friday.

At Best Buy tempers flared when latecomers tried to crash lines to snag predawn deals. Many parents did all their toy shopping in gridlocked toy stores before breakfast even though virtually nobody even saw the much-hyped, but long-ago soldout TMX Elmo.

Shoppers who drove to Prime Outlets Ellenton for its first-ever midnight opening were stuck in a traffic snarl so massive it took an hour to drive the last mile from either direction on I-75.

Tampa bargain hunter Stephanie Melnick and her sister, Andrea Torrens, left home at 11 p.m., then tried to dodge the jam by driving past the mall and approaching from the south. Her group didn't get to the mall until 1 :30 a.m.

"We thought we had beaten the system," Torrens mused. "But the system beat us."

It was a night of congestion and resolve.

"Every year I say I'll never do this again," said Kim Stefanski, a 29-year-old medical receptionist from St. Petersburg. "But here I am again at 4:30 a.m. The prices are worth it."

Wal-Mart touted $30 GE microwave ovens and $248 20-inch LCD TVs. Radio Shack quickly sold out of $39.99 Bluetooth cell phone earpieces at $9.99. Everything at Aeropostale stores was half price, and you got a free plush bear if you spent $100.

Malls that opened an hour earlier than last year at 5 or 6 a.m. were mobbed. But by midmorning, the hard-core bargain hunters had moved on and day turned into just another very busy day for most retailers.

By noon only a third of the north parking garage at WestShore Plaza was filled. You could park within 150 feet of the department store doors at Westfield Countryside in Clearwater at 10 a.m. Spaces were common as close as 75 feet from the door of the usually jam-packed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pinellas Park by 9:30 a.m. and checkout was no more than two deep.

"I'm really surprised it's not that crowded here," said Maureen Schaub, a 24-year-old Pinellas Park resident who shops there the same day every year.

Outfitted in a Santa hat and festive holly brooch, hands-on Sears Roebuck store manager Liz Harris took command of a checkout stand that was one register operator short. She rang up orders, tracked down an on-sale Roomba for a customer who had one that wasn't on sale, and sped around the store straightening signs and defusing any sign of customer unrest.

"I love long lines," she said.

"Our stores are very happy with the traffic," said Bill Brzycki, manager of Countryside.

It appeared retailers' annual kickoff to their 31-day forced march to Christmas came with few hitches and few sour shoppers. Named back in the 1920s by retailers as the day they planned for their annual business to break into the black, Black Friday is one of - but not the - biggest days of the year for retailers. Many stores still rely on the last two months of the year for up to a third of their annual sales and half their annual profit. For toy stores it's half of both.

While this season is not expected to be quite as good as last year's five-year high of a 6.1 percent sales gain, the National Retail Federation forecasts a solid 5 percent gain to $457-billion. And the Florida Retail Federation expects a 6 percent gain in the Sunshine State, with Tampa Bay shoppers expected to spend more than the statewide average.

Experts say retailers did not stock up as much this season, so it's doubtful there will be as much last minute price-slashing to clear unsold goods.

Rather, price-slashing came early - and so did the shoppers.

The first shopper in a line 800-deep to get in the St. Petersburg Best Buy camped out there two full days. But the mood there - akin to an all-night tailgate party - soured when last-minute line crashers appeared.

"I've been here since right after Thanksgiving dinner," said Kelley Schafer, a 38-year-old counselor at Bay Pines VA Medical Center. "I was 30th in line until all these people ahead of us started letting people in. Now I'm more like 100th and didn't get the voucher for the $299 computer I came here to get."

Three police cruisers came to restore order. But neither police nor Best Buy security attempted to sort out who elbowed their way into the lines.

By the time the doors opened, the store trash cans were overflowing with empty Frappuccino bottles, energy drink cans and a Tupperware container full of green bean casserole.

Shopping pals Diane Frenzel and Bonnie Trester tried the new Kohl's in Clearwater to avoid the "three or four hour" mall experience.

Then they spent 40 minutes idling in the Kohl's checkout line before diving back in for more in the linens department.

Garry Allenbaugh, JCPenney general manager in Westfield Citrus Park said his company's first 5 a.m. opening drew crowds out to spend early and often.

But Allenbaugh hopes that trend toward nabbing the early shopping birds doesn't persuade JCPenney to open earlier than 5 a.m. next year.

"I hope we stop there," he said.

Times staff writers Nicole Johnson, Lisa Buie, Asjylyn Loder, Jim Ross, Michael Mohammed, Jamal Thalji, Bridget Grumet and Sherry Robinson contributed to this report. Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified November 25, 2006, 00:48:33]