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Day-after deal hunting
Video
Sale seekers head to the mall early to take advantage of next-day markdowns.
By Elise Franco
Sometimes the best Christmas presents can be found the day after.
Local retailers made drastic price cuts and offered post-holiday deals Friday to reel in shoppers.
The doors at Eastwood Mall in Niles opened at 8 a.m., and some customers were already waiting outside. “We started great, and we expect big crowds all day,” said mall manager Ken Kollar.
Across the Valley, at Southern Park Mall in Boardman, director of mall marketing Sheryl Raulin said sales were comparable to Black Friday.
“The mall is extremely busy. We have lots of traffic in the mall with a lot of people taking advantage of post-Christmas sales,” she said. “You can tell by the lines of people queued up getting ready to pay for purchases.”
People browsed racks and bins to find the best sales at their favorite stores.
Some Eastwood Mall places, such as American Eagle Outfitters and Old Navy, were offering discounts of 60 percent. S&K Menswear offered discounts as high as 75 percent.
Doug Caffelle, manager of Target in Niles, said all gift wrap, decorations and holiday-themed clothing and home decor are a part of the sale. He said the items will continue to be marked down until everything is gone.
“Our sales now are focused around 50 percent off the seasonal items,” he said.
Joe Kengor and his daughter, Jessica, both of Austintown, said shopping on the day after Christmas has become a father-daughter tradition.
“We started off at Hallmark and got some cards and candy,” Joe said. “We found some good sales.”
Jessica said the first stores they visit are card shops to find holiday goodies for next year.
“We like to get cards and wrapping paper and ornaments,” she said. “We spent about $100 at the card shop.”
Jessica, with shopping bags in both hands, said she found a jacket for $17 at Macy’s.
“We’ve already made one trip out to the car,” she said. “We’re about to make another.”
Carissa Bogan and Kate Gilligan, both 16, of Kinsman, also said they rolled out of bed early Friday to take advantage of sales.
“We came to go shopping with our Christmas money,” Gilligan said.
She said her favorite purchase of the day was Juicy Couture perfume that she bought on sale at Macy’s for $65.
Both young ladies said they expected larger crowds, but that didn’t deter them.
“I’ll shop any time,” Gilligan said. “We were told all the sales would be going on early.”
Kollar said it’s true that Black Friday and the day after Christmas are two profitable days for retailers, but the biggest moneymakers are the days just before Christmas.
“Black Friday is traditionally the big shopping day, but realistically it’s not,” he said. “The last five days before Christmas have usually been the true shopping days. ... It played out that way this year.”
Caffelle said Target’s post-holiday business was booming from the minute the doors opened at 7 a.m.
“We’ve been very busy,” he said. “It’s almost like Black Friday all over again.”
Caffelle said between 70 and 80 people were lined up outside the store before it opened.
He said all of December was very profitable for the store, and that it didn’t see as many returns as in years past.
“Compared to years past, returns are just a little more than normal days,” Caffelle said. “I think it’s because this year people only really bought what they know they wanted. ... We saw less impulse purchases.”
efranco@vindy.com
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