Savvy Shoppers Rush for Day-After-Christmas Deals

Savvy shoppers at Bullock’s Mission Valley Shopping Center in San Diego don’t wait for the upstairs doors to open on Dec. 26.

Nor do they walk a straight line to Bullock’s day-after Christmas boutique, where the half-price leftovers of another Yule season are up for grabs.

Instead, they gather before 7:30 a.m. at the parking garage entrance. When the doors open, many run a zig-zag course through the furniture department.

Because many shoppers literally run into the Christmas shop, Bullock’s personnel stand ready at the escalators, hoping to prevent injuries.

By 8:03 a.m., the Christmas boutique aisles were jammed and the cash registers were humming.

“They’re far better behaved than several years ago,” observed a store employee who has worked half a dozen of “day after” sales. “There used to be pushing and shoving and an occasional fight.”

The employee nonetheless stood safely behind several cartons of marked-down wrapping paper, possibly his way of suggesting that not all shoppers are guided by the Christmas spirit.

“This one guy pushed me across the table to get what he wanted,” complained San Diegan Cathy Cady. “Can you believe it? I really laid into him.”

Bullock’s employees handed out stylish shopping baskets to customers, but veterans brought along their own boxes, bags and carts.

Extra-strength bags are a necessity, suggested one sack-toting woman, who complained that less-hardy bags tend to rip.

“We talked about this all yesterday,” said a grinning Cady, who along with her sister, Mary Janis, had filled their day-after Santa’s bag with, among other things, a decorative sleigh, three swans, two ducks and a wreath.

Sitting on the floor behind a cash register, the sisters divvied up their loot, not unlike Halloween trick-or-treaters trading favorite candy bars for a less appetizing delight.

“We both know what the other likes,” said Janis, who operates on the assumption that, given the mad rush, it’s wiser to grab first and sort it out later.

It also helps to have a plan of action.

“The fastest route is through the bedroom section, and you’ve got to scout out what you want on the days before Christmas,” Jane Williams said. “When we got in, I went that way and my daughter (Jennifer) went to the Hallmark stuff.”

First-timers, Williams observed, generally gather outside the less-crowded East and West entrances, a floor above the basement-level boutique. But that route requires that precious seconds be wasted on the escalator.

By 8:30 a.m., mother and daughter were settled into a couch in the furniture section, sorting through more than three dozen items.

What does the boutique crowd do with its post-Christmas haul?

The cards and wrapping paper, half-priced but attractive, are destined to sit in storage for a year.

And, “we decorate,” Jennifer Williams said with a grin. “You should see our house.”

Storewide, Bullock’s is “hoping for a 10% increase over last year’s sales,” said Robbi Kraft, publicity director. “For the day after, that would be terrific.”

The Christmas shop activity was a welcome addition to a Yuletide shopping season that, nationally, has been characterized by slow sales.

“Lackluster is a good adjective to describe (seasonal sales),” said a shopping mall publicist in San Diego. “It’s tough to tell what’s going to happen (on Friday). It’s been that kind of season.”

“They started thrashing around real early here,” said Marilee Bankert, publicity director for Fashion Valley Center in San Diego, who described the pre-Christmas shopping as “sporadic” compared to previous years.

In contrast, Friday’s action “started early and they’re now out in force,” Bankert said.

The more than 100 early birds gathered outside the Mission Valley Bullock’s store Friday morning were “in a buying mood,” Kraft said. “That’s good because once they get in (the store) they generally don’t leave right away.”

At 9 a.m., a handful of shoppers were gathered outside the Toys “R” Us store on Morena Boulevard as store personnel attached a sign advising customers with returns to “enter through the exit” doors.

Returns are “not a big deal for us,” said an employee. “It’s nothing like the last few days have been.”