CAPE GIRARDEAU RETAILERS REPORT LIVELY HOLIDAY SHOPPING KICKOFF

Santa's elves came to town this weekend, armed with lists, comfortable walking shoes and, best of all, holiday cash.

The dawn of the Christmas shopping season had shoppers battling for best parking spaces and hunting the advertised bargains as thousands of shoppers fanned out across the city's areas for the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season Friday.

Sales in Cape Girardeau's major shopping areas were brisk, with a number of merchants reporting Thanksgiving weekend sales this year well ahead of those of a year ago.

Many merchants say the Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, day of the year. This was evidenced at West Park Mall, where only a hand full of distant parking spaces were still vacant a half hour after opening. Store aisles were almost unnavigable and some cashier lines were long.

West Park Mall, which keeps records on its traffic, reported increases both Friday and Saturday over the count of a year ago.

"The traffic started earlier Friday and was here throughout the day," said Tony Stephens, manager of the mall. "It was slower Saturday, but by 2 p.m. the crowd was here again.

"All three anchor stores JCPenney, Famous Barr and Venture reported double-digit sales increases over a year ago Friday," he said. "And some stores in the mall had increases up to 40 percent."

"Buying is up dramatically," Stephens added.

"The buyers were out," agreed Harry Rediger, manager of JCPenney, an anchor store at the mall. "We had steady traffic all day, and we posted double-digit gains over the day after Thanksgiving a year ago."

Rediger, who pointed out that JCPenney sales had been good in November, said he had been pleasantly surprised with sales this fall.

"We had good gains in September and October, and a real good November," he said. "We're expecting a big weekend. "Our noon count Saturday showed an increase over the same day a year ago."

One of the largest non-anchor stores Lerner New York, which underwent a remodeling project expanding its space to more than 13,000 square feet at West Park Mall reported good activity.

"We're busy," said Sheri Schrader, sales manager of Lerner New York. "We're well pleased with the traffic and sales this weekend."

Terry Godwin agreed that sales have been good.

"We had a good day Friday," said Godwin, manager of Wal-Mart, 210 S. Silver Springs Road. "People are spending more bucks than last year."

Godwin said the average sale per customer was well above that of a year ago.

"We've had outstanding sales the past few days," he said. "Naturally, Friday was the biggest day we've had, but there was a lot of traffic here Saturday, too."

A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said early sales indications for the chain were good and that the company's sales were expected to exceed last year's.

Business was brisk in downtown Cape Girardeau Friday and Saturday.

"This is our first year here," said David Vinson of Chrisman Art Gallery & Outfitters, 24 N. Main, which moved downtown from the west end in June. "We don't have any way of making comparisons with crowds of a year ago, but we're certainly pleased with the crowds of the past two days."

"Our sales are up and we're very optimistic about Christmas sales," said Jack Watts, manager at Sears in Town Plaza Shopping Center. "Our traffic this weekend is up over the same period a year ago, and people are purchasing things."

Watts said the month of November has been a good one for Sears.

"We've experienced double-digit increases for November," he said. "

John McClain, manager of Kmart, 11 S. Kingshighway, said he was pleased with Friday and Saturday sales. "We had a lot of traffic throughout the day," he said.

Reports were the same from other areas of the state. Shoppers turned out in droves at St. Louis, Springfield and Kansas City shopping centers Friday.

The average U.S. household is expected to spend about $375 on gifts this holiday season, according to a nationwide survey by the a Consumer Research Center. That tallies up to about $36 billion, which is just shy of last year's estimates.

Many stores, here and nationally, beefed up advertising campaigns, offered discounts and sales on a variety of goods and gifts.

A spokeswoman at Bloomingdale's flagship Manhattan store said cashmere sweaters were flying out of the store Friday and that also novelty items, such as a rhythm alarm clock with animals that sing and play guitar to wake you up, were selling well.

Marshall Field & Co.'s premier department store on State Street in Chicago's Loop had plenty of browsers to go along with buyers.

At the Field's store north of State Street, at Water Tower Place - on North Michigan Avenue in the glitzy Chicago shopping district known as The Magnificent Mile - cash registers were chiming away.

At the Galleria, a prestigious Houston shopping mall housing more than 300 stores and featuring 1.5 million square feet of retail space, a marketing spokesman said, "Going into the Christmas season, we feel very positive because we are currently running higher sales so far this year compared to last year. We expect this trend to continue."