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On your mark, get set, shop!
By KENT FISCHER
© St. Petersburg Times, PORT RICHEY -- Dawn Brady's shopping cart was stacked high with Fisher-Price toys, inline skates and Lincoln Logs, but the real haul was packed safely into the trunk of her car: three DVD players, two televisions, a stereo, and more CDs and DVDs than she could count.
"We're not even close to being done," said Brady, who started shopping Friday with a predawn assault on Wal-Mart. Accompanied by their daughters, Brady and Beth Carey had a method to their madness. The girls were the "runners," sent out into the jammed-packed aisles to fetch and retrieve specific gifts while the moms guarded the cart and scouted the checkout lines. Their whole operation smacked of a well-planned commando raid. "I got up early okay, but I'll probably be really tired later today," said Natalie Brady, 13. The unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season kicked off Friday with long predawn lines outside Target and Circuit City in Port Richey. Hundreds of people stood in line awaiting Target's 7 a.m. opening. Store workers said it took about 20 minutes for everyone to simply get through the doors. With the nation's economy on the skids and consumers jittery since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, retailers are trying to kick-start the holiday season with expanded hours and bigger bargains. Experts predict that this year's holiday season will bring in about $206-billion, about 3 percent higher than last year's total. That would make this year's growth the smallest since 1990. Last year, consumers spent $201-billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Some Zephyrhills residents didn't even wait until Friday. They spent part of Thanksgiving Day at Big Kmart at 7422 Gall Blvd. "We were swamped yesterday, and today we can't even keep carts in the building," assistant store manager Mark Harris said Friday. "We've been having to chase people out into the parking lot to get their carts when they are finished." Harris said Kmart will be open 24 hours a day through the Thanksgiving weekend and again the three days leading up to Christmas. Across the street at Wal-Mart, between 600 and 700 people were lined up at midnight for the store's annual all-night sale. One employee said it would take "10 hours" just to clean up the havoc wreaked by holiday shoppers. At Gulf View Square mall, Michelle Rusaw, Theresa Schroeder and Katie Moffett took a midmorning break on a bench outside Burdines. They had been at it since 5:30 a.m. and had already hit Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart. Up next was a lunch with their husbands at Red Lobster and then an afternoon trip to Citrus Park Town Center. Schroeder said they would probably make another evening run to Wal-Mart and end their day about 10 p.m. "We leave the men at home, but we make them buy us lunch," Rusaw said. "It's a family ritual. Yesterday we sat around the table plotting our strategy." Moffett was one of Target's early morning shoppers. She was after a $55 karaoke machine; she got it. "I ran through that store like a lunatic," she said. "People were yelling, "Grab me 10 of those!' It was crazy." Sandwiched between the women on the bench was 16-year-old Joel Schroeder. The lone male of the group, he was handed a very important job. "I hold the bags," he said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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