Got A Zombie Farm To Stock? Go To The Annual Macy's Sale

TAMPA - Taylor Durdan sat in the shade next to a head without a body, a crouching set of hips and legs without a torso and a tangle of arms without shoulders.

He was anxious to get them home -- to add to his undead collection in the backyard of his home out near Temple Terrace.

"It's a handmade zombie farm," he said. His mixed bag of body parts isn't real, of course. The dismembered parts were from mannequins, and Durdan got good deals on all his pasty white zombies.

"I love the crouching legs," he said. "I'm going to put a skeleton top on it, so it will be a crouching skeleton."

A mechanic who works on race cars, Durdan admits he's a little different. "Yeah," he said. "We're those people."

But he was right at home among the thousands of shoppers who considered themselves a step above the flea market crowd but nonetheless milled about the open-air market next to the Macy's furniture store on Gandy Boulevard this morning. They picked through hundreds of alabaster-skinned, naked mannequins in all sort of poses.

The department store held its annual two-day sale of display props, and everything had a price tag on it. People were lined up last night to be among the first to pick through the tables, fabrics, display cases and weird odds and ends such as a Christmas tree ornament that is 2 feet wide or earring racks or humongous picture frames.

Staring out from the back of Elise Schreiner's sport utility vehicle were two large white acrylic dogs, each with a black circle around its right eye. She bought the displays -- two large ones and two small ones -- for her children and for her job. She already has one at home.

"This is my fifth year," she said. "You never know what you're going to get."

A photographer, she buys a lot of things to use as props, including the dogs, which she uses when photographing children, she said.

As for home decorating, ideas come when she spots the weird.

"I like the bizarre, the unique, the different," she said.

Suzanne Hebert works for Macy's and is in charge of the annual event, which has been going on for more than 10 years in Tampa. Stuff from 60 Florida stores, along with props from the Macy's in Puerto Rico, were for sale.

The sale lasts through tomorrow.

"This is fun," she said. Mannequins, for some strange reason, always are popular. But people also buy a lot of fabric, and the display shelves are good for storage in garages, she said. Solid, heavy wooden tables also are a big seller, she said.

People who show up for the sale are a diverse bunch, she said.

"We get florists, caterers, mechanics; people setting up shops; and even parents with kids going to college looking for room decorations."

She said she talked to a woman in line at 4:30 a.m. who came here from Daytona.

By the time it's over on Friday, a couple of thousand people probably will have come through and plunked down some money for something odd, she said.

"People love this stuff," she said.

Fresia Tran, 23, was the first in line Thursday. She started the line at 4 p.m. Wednesday with her cousin Travis Schnet; godmother, Denice Schnet; and Aunts Kathy Denise Schnet and Kathy Gay.

The group slept on blankets on the ground overnight to make sure they were first in line.

"I look forward to this all year," Tran said. "I train for this. You have to get here early to get first pick."

"There's five of us, and we all work together to make sure to get all the things we can," said Gay, 48. "It's such a thrill trying to beat someone else to get something. And it goes really fast."

Denice Schnet, 77, was worried about just one thing.

"I just don't want to get trampled on," she said with a grin.

First-timer Sonia Wetherman accompanied her neighbor Corey Branamens, 54, to the Macy's sale.

"She's always talking about this every year, so I decided to come with her this time," said Wetherman, 42. "I couldn't believe people started lining up so early. Look at all these people, and it's not even 7 a.m. We're going to have to get here earlier next year."

Branamens brought her binoculars and eyed the merchandise through the chain link fence before the gates opened.

"I already know what I want," she said, gesturing to the front of the lot. "I'm all about the Christmas decorations. They're great, and you save so much money. This is stuff you don't see in regular stores."

Over on the north end of the bustling lot, Durdan's dismembered mannequins remained in the shade. He had disappeared to get his Toyota Celica. His wife, Alexis Williams, waited for him to return, hoping all the stuff would fit in the back of the small hatchback.

She admitted that their home-decorating motif, including the zombie farm, is a bit unusual.

"The neighbors tolerate us," she said. "We're good neighbors. We saved one's cat from a pit bull once.

"We're not too loud or obnoxious," she said. "We're just strange."