By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

While the Christmas shopping season has not been very jolly for many retailers nationally, several local stores report strong pre-Christmas sales – a sign Mineral Wells and North Texas has not been hit by the recession nearly as hard as other areas.

On Friday, many embarked on post-Christmas Day shopping trips to make exchanges, look for post-holiday sales or use gift cards.

“It was crazy on Christmas Eve,” said Marie Roy, assistant manager at Wal-Mart, on Friday morning. “We had a full staff, even on Tuesday.”

She estimated that sales were about double from last year. “We were really busy.”

Most local retailers had also reported strong sales on “Black Friday” – the day after Thanksgiving that heralds the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

Like most stores, Wal-Mart was closed on Christmas Day. The typically open–24-hours store shut the doors at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and reopened at 6 a.m. on Friday.

“People were at the door at 6 a.m.,” Roy said, “but we really haven’t been that busy on returns.”

At approximately 9:30 a.m., the parking lot wasn’t at capacity and foot traffic was unexpectedly light.

“It was about what I expected,” commented shopper Bobby Ward. “A little busy but nothing unusual for the day after Christmas.”

At the Brazos River Factory Stores, a handful of shoppers perused the clearance items at Van Heusen where large banners and signs announced their business closing and marked-down prices.

“We’re in the middle of shutting everything down and everything’s going really, really fast,” said Saranda Gashi, Van Heusen’s floor supervisor.

Before Christmas, Gashi said they had a full staff working and “every day there was 10 people in each line.”

She estimated their busiest day was the day after Thanksgiving.

At Banister-Easy Spirit, manager Darlene Butler manned the counter on Friday.

“They had a pretty good Christmas Eve,” she said.

Compared to last year’s holiday sales, Butler said they didn’t see a really big change. She expected the post-Christmas shopping to pick up later on Friday.

“Usually after lunch is when people get out,” she noted.

Stephenville residents Shane Beavers and Pat Krowl went shopping at the outlet mall Friday morning after getting off work.

Beavers said it was the savings he’d find that brought him to the stores.

“It’s kind of dead right now,” he said, noting the few shoppers in the store.

Krowl said he was able to save a lot of money on his purchases at Van Heusen and VF Factory Outlet.

Mineral Wells resident Sandy Stevens said she and her husband don’t normally shop the day after Christmas. When asked what brought them out on Friday, “we were bored, I think,” she said.

Dan Turk said his family was celebrating Christmas Friday night so he hit the outlet mall early Friday morning.

“I’m still Christmas shopping,” he said with a laugh. Turk explained he procrastinated on his holiday purchases.

With a full bag of goodies, Turk said of the prices and selection, “I thought it was great. Very nice.”

At Bealls Department Store, assistant manager Deborah Wade said customers began to trickle in Friday shortly after they opened for business but before Thursday, foot traffic was very constant.

“We were very steady and business was brisk,” she said. “People were looking for bargains and we had a lot of specials and sales.”

According to Wade, “We have noticed a decrease [in sales] a little from last year but we feel very fortunate we are where we are. Our customers have been loyal to us.”

Shopper Debbie Newman and her husband came from Barton’s Chapel to hit the sales at Bealls. The rural mail carrier said they were finished with Christmas and looking to shop for themselves on Friday.

At Tractor Supply, manager Calvin Daigle said foot traffic was “very crowded” on Friday. “They hit us right before Christmas [and] shopped right up to Christmas.”

Although the store closed its doors at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Daigle said he would consider their Christmas season sales “very successful.”

According to preliminary data from SpendingPulse, which tracks purchases paid for by credit card, checks or cash, retail sales fell between 5.5 percent and 8 percent during the holiday season compared with last year. Excluding auto and gas sales, they fell 2 percent to 4 percent, according to SpendingPulse.

More people did appear to shop online, particularly in the last two weeks of the season, when storms hit. Online sales dipped just 2.3 percent, SpendingPulse said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.