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Shopping Falls Short Of Usual Day-After Frenzy

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Drivers found parking spaces hard to come by at Westfield Shopping Center in Brandon on the day after Christmas.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

Updated: 12/26/2007 05:57 pm

BRANDON - Shopping the day after Christmas was no Black Friday as throngs of bargain hunters lined up in pre-dawn hours.

Shoppers hitting stores today expected to find larger than normal crowds. Instead, the number of shoppers was closer to that of a normal day.

The day after Christmas has become one when retailers offer deals for the growing number of shoppers who found gift cards under trees and others who are returning presents that didn't pass muster.

And holiday items go on sale to clear the shelves.

Many of shoppers today were focused on the deeply discounted Christmas decorations and gift wrap.

At the Brandon SuperTarget, Dot Monforte, along with two daughters, two granddaughters and a daughter-in-law, were jamming a cart with half-price Christmas items, something they do every year.

But when they arrived at the store about 9:15 a.m., they found more items on the shelves and fewer shoppers in the aisles than they expected.

"I didn't expect to see this much stuff left," said Monforte, 70, of Valrico.

After hitting the SuperTarget, they planned to make a run to a mall to burn through gift cards they received for Christmas.

Richelle Nolan found the store oddly empty as she focused her morning shopping energy on the Christmas items, though she said maybe people were waiting until later in the day.

"I'm in shock. It's eerily quiet, but maybe it's the calm before the storm," she said. "I expected wall-to-wall people."

Activity at the store was about even with expectations, said a manager, Brian Jablonski.

"It's about what we expected. Just a steady flow all day long," he said.

There were lines outside the SuperTarget when it opened at 8 a.m., an hour earlier than normal, and at a Brandon Kohl's. In neither case was the crowd comparable to what's typical on the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday.

Terri Spitz, along with six family members and a friend, was an early arrival at Westfield Brandon mall, showing up at 6 a.m. to hit the Macy's as the first step in a marathon of post-Christmas shopping.

Spitz came from Orlando, and her mother, Joy Guidry, came from the Sumter County community of Center Hill.

The Dec. 26 shopping expedition is something the women have done for seven years.

"The men are home watching the young children," Spitz said

Much of the group's attention initially focused on Christmas items. Later shopping rounds would be to use gift cards.

In other years, they were surrounded by more shoppers.

"Yes, it's definitely less crowded than other years," said Spritz, amid the second batch of stuffed shopping bags the group intended to haul to cars.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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