The aisles were alight with sharp markdowns and more, but it was a trickle, not a flood, of customers at the door.
Locally it appeared as morning arrived the retailers were not going to get back into the black, but the hope is that the buyers will show up during the post Christmas weekend and rescue the balance sheets.
Wal-Mart on Shallowford Road appeared to be getting ready more for refund and return business than big sales, with two registers set up just for that and nothing else.
Lakeshore Mall's major stores, J.C.Penney, Belk and Sears, opened well before sunrise with discounts of up to 75 percent on selected merchandise, mostly Christmas items; but there were 40, 50 and 60 percent clothing discounts.
Still, shoppers casually strolled in. There was no mad rush to fill shopping bags like the stores have seen in the past and are presently hoping for; rain dampened predawn parking lots were just partially filled.
During past Yule Tide shopping seasons the stores could count on a big shopping surge before and after Christmas to capture up to 40 percent of annual profits.
It was also quiet over on the downtown Gainesville square, with some shops and restaurants appearing to be closed. Others displayed signs of sales and discounts in the windows in the hopes of luring shoppers, but there were very few people out and about.
What happened, or did not happen, in Gainesville early Friday is no real surprise; SpendingPulse research shows spending was down as much as 8 percent from 2007 because of the recession.
Rain dampened predawn parking lots were just partially filled
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/12/216323