The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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December 26, 2009

Hunting for bargains

Area retailers pleased with pace of business

By Courtney D. Clark

Lines of determined customers surrounded cash registers Saturday at Crossroads Mall.

Parking lots were full as people of all ages flocked to stores to take advantage of post-Christmas deal shopping, returns and exchanges.

“It’s a madhouse,” said Amanda Hatcher, 23, of Shady Spring. “But I love it. I prefer getting gift cards and shopping for myself after Christmas. It makes it easier on everyone.

“I’ve found some awesome deals today. Everything is on sale.”

Belk employees arrived at work as early as 5:30 a.m., store manager Terri Wilmoth said.

“We opened at 6 a.m. and had a lot of door busters,” Wilmoth said. “It started out a little bit slow but picked up around 10 a.m.

“Customers are making returns as well as purchasing. Today has been steady, but the holidays have been really good for us.”

Melinda Lilly, wireless consultant for RT (Verizon) Wireless, said she saw very few returns.

“Most of the phones sold this past month were for Christmas gifts,” Lilly said. “It’s still early, but we haven’t had many returns at all. We’ve also seen a lot of people coming in to upgrade that currently have service because they signed up two years ago around Christmas time.”

“The mall seems to still be just as busy as before Christmas,” she added, “but I guess you have to take into consideration that not everyone is here to return stuff, they are here to shop with their Christmas money, too.”

Sears saw “very, very few returns” as well, according to Paul Mason, assistant store manager over appliances and electronics.

“It’s been everybody hunting for a bargain,” he said. “We had a lot of great door busters going this morning and they have just about wiped out everything in tools. I don’t hardly have any wrench sets or anything left, but today’s the last day for sales on most of that.”

He said television door busters went first, adding his employees sold around 15 Element TVs in the first 30 minutes.

“Snow blowers and generators have also been big because of the storm,” he continued.

Rebecca Terry said she trekked from Princeton Saturday morning to take advantage of sales.

“Beckley has a few more options for shopping than we have in Bluefield, so my daughter and I like to make a day out of it,” she said.

— E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com

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