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Shopping Bags A Bit Lighter

Tribune photo by CHRISTINE DeLESSIO

Eyobel Zerefa, his wife Sosena Hailu and their two children Latty Zerefa and Issay Zerefa brave the crowds at the Shops at Wiregrass on Black Friday.

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: November 29, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Two days short of its one-month anniversary, the Shops at Wiregrass welcomed its first Christmas shopping crowd Friday. But tight holiday budgets meant many shoppers strolled the sidewalks empty-handed.

Crowds at Pasco County's newest mall started out light but grew during the day as the early birds settled into their day of Black Friday shopping. By noon, most of the mall's 3,300 parking spaces were filled.

"Things are going very well today, and our merchants have said they are very pleased," Chad Doritan, the mall's marketing director, said Friday afternoon.

Doritan said mall officials expected more than 60,000 visitors by the end of the day.

Staci Reardon of Land O' Lakes hit the sidewalks of Wiregrass after starting her day at 4:30 a.m. at Kohl's on North Dale Mabry Highway in Hillsborough County.

"I thought it was going to be much crazier," said Reardon, who was joined by friend Sandra Cory of Wesley Chapel.

The women toted matching bags from Justice, a store catering to teenage girls, where the entire store was buy-one-get-one-free. Reardon said her three children would be getting less than usual for Christmas this year.

"It's still what they want," she said, "just less of it."

Elsewhere in the county, "layaway" was the word of the day at the Big Kmart in Zephyrhills. The discount retailer is one of the few department stores to offer the payment option, and plenty of people used it for the first time Friday.

Cynthia Miltner waited in line three hours to put a deposit on a Barbie bicycle for her 4-year-old daughter.

"It was horrible," she said of the wait.

Janet Shell also passed her time in the layaway line but she said it was worth the wait. The Black Friday markdowns saved her $124.

Shell said she hadn't slept since Wednesday and started her shopping spree at Wal-Mart at 4 a.m.

"It's hard when you've got five kids and one income," she said. "We set a budget, but we always go over."

For Yvette Wilkinson of Wesley Chapel, shopping with her teenage daughter and a friend at Wiregrass, this year's shopping is focused on needs, not wants. She said this year's Christmas budget is half to a quarter of last year's.

"The strategy is a lot less," said Wilkinson, who recently lost her job with Verizon. "More need than want, and definitely with a budget - a much smaller budget."

Wilkinson started shopping at 8 a.m. instead of hours earlier, as she had last year.

"The money isn't there," Wilkinson said. "So the excitement isn't what it was last year."

A looming job loss didn't keep Amanda McClellan of Plant City from indulging in a little retail therapy. She carried a bundle of plastic bags in each hand walking with her mother and aunts. At the time, she and her mother, Carol Ellington, had been shopping for more than five hours.

"We've already loaded the car once," Ellington said.

But even McClellan and her family members had the economy on their minds as they shopped.

"From last year, we're scaling down just because of the economy," said Kim Fowler of Kissimmee. "You don't know what's going to happen."

Reporter Laura Kinsler contributed to this report. Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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