TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Shoppers Stay Close To Home

ADVERTISEMENT

By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - With the price of gasoline at more than $3 a gallon, Pasco County residents were giving thanks Friday that they have more local shopping centers to choose from this year.

"I try to avoid Tampa at all costs," said Run Gilliam, a Wesley Chapel resident who concentrated her purchases Friday in New Tampa and at the new Toys R Us in The Grove at Wesley Chapel, off County Road 54 along Oakley Boulevard. "I think it's great more stores are coming here."
Wesley Chapel now boasts two partly completed shopping centers. The Grove opened this month, and so far has four stores open: Toys R Us, Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods and Bed, Bath and Beyond. At the still-developing Shops at Wiregrass, JCPenney is going into its third season at State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

That selection is broad enough to help shoppers like Gilliam get through their holiday shopping while allowing them to limit their driving. Both Gilliam and her husband commute to Tampa for work, so they're conscious of staying close to home on weekends to conserve gasoline, she said.

She stayed within a 15-mile radius of her home Friday morning, and still found plenty of early-morning sales, she said. She finished the morning's work by 9:15 a.m., having made purchases at Toys R Us for her two preschool-age children.

Some folks said they would not have been shopping Friday if they hadn't seen The Grove open from the roadway.

"We wouldn't shop, if this wasn't right here," said Melissa Attaberry, who ventured out from her Wesley Chapel home to Best Buy and Dick's Sporting Goods with her husband and their toddler. "It's so much hassle going to Tampa."

Fishing buddies Andy Tsourakis and Buddy Bell saw the Dick's Sporting Goods store by chance when they went to a Cracker Barrel restaurant across the highway for breakfast. It turned out to be too windy to fish, but fine weather for reeling in a deal on equipment.

The store had a Friday special on a basic model fishing pole selling for $10, compared with the regular price of $30.

The poles aren't ones that Tsourakis and Bell, both tournament fishermen from Wesley Chapel, would use themselves, but Tsourakis bought five. When friends with little experience fishing want to try the sport, he can let them use the beginner equipment and not worry if a pole breaks, he said.

"I've talked to other people in the checkout line who said the same thing," Tsourakis said.

At the JCPenney in Wiregrass, a group of about 14 women who shop together every Black Friday said they started their daylong expedition in Pasco, and spent most of their time here. They were using a motor home to ferry the whole group around. They did venture southwest to Westfield Citrus Park mall in Hillsborough, but couldn't find a place big enough to park their vehicle.

So, aside from a restaurant where the women stopped for lunch, "we didn't spend any money in Hillsborough County," shopper Lisa McKee said.

Convenient parking close to the store and high gas prices are encouraging shoppers to try the local JCPenney store, which opened in 2005, said manager Connie Lant. But, with consumers having become so price savvy, she said, retailers need to offer competitive prices to turn browsers into shoppers. The JCPenney store probably saw a 10 percent increase in Black Friday sales over last year, she said, with electronics, home goods and clothing ranking as the most popular sellers.

Reporter Jo-Ann Johnston can be reached at (352) 521-3062 or jfjohnston@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT