HITTING THE SHOPS

At 10:30 a.m., Henrietta Bartels plopped down in a West Park Mall chair for a rest. She had been up since 5:40. Shuffling her shopping bags, she stared out at the crowd and waited for her husband, Bob, to pick her up. Bartels, like thousands of other area shoppers, spent her morning weaving in and out of red-tagged aisles hunting for after-Christmas sales.

Bartels, who lives in St. Mary's, said early-morning bargain-hunting on Dec. 26 is sort of a tradition. She said she's a careful shopper and even begins her Christmas shopping in November. This year, she only had one jacket to return, and bought some Christmas cards that had been marked down.

She and Bob began their shopping at 7:05 -- a mere five minutes after the mall opened -- and said the crowds this year were a little harsh.

"The people in here were a little ruder this morning than they usually are," she said.

Debbie Cook, a salesperson in the Misses Casual department at JCPenney's, said she thought the historically hectic morning had run more smoothly than it had in past years. At her counter, she said, she'd had more purchases than returns.

"I guess people are out spending all their Christmas money," she said.

Though malls are notoriously busy on Dec. 26, West Park wasn't the only place shoppers flocked to yesterday. Sales in Wal-Mart, the Town Plaza and Cape's downtown shopping areas drew literally thousands of thrifty early-birds.

Steve Spear, Wal-Mart's grocery manager, said shoppers were beating down the doors at 6 a.m. yesterday morning. Spear said people were lined up in front of the door when he came in to work, and the parking lot was completely full by 8 a.m.

Spear said that, because Wal-Mart decided to put all their discount Christmas items in one pile in the lawn and garden section, the relatively small area turned into a human stampede. At some points during the day, he said, there were so many shoppers crammed into the discount Christmas section that he had trouble moving around in the space.

Spear laughed when a store employee remarked that Wal-Mart had been "swamped the whole day."

"That's an understatement," he said. Spear said he expects shoppers will keep up the pace the for the entire weekend.

Paul Hawkins, general manager at the Sears department store, said things had been busy in his store since 8 a.m. and he didn't expect them to slow down anytime soon.

The Sears store, he said, used to get lots of returns the day after Christmas. This year, Hawkins said people were taking advantage of mark-downs and picking up extra sale items when they came in to return gifts.

James Green, manager of Howard's Sporting Goods on Broadway, said business was just as good on the other end of town. Green was happy to report few returns and said his morning customers had been spending their gift certificates and Christmas money.

His morning crowd, he said, actually seemed less rushed than last year's crowd. Green said that, because Christmas fell on a Thursday this year, he thought most of his customers had gotten the day after Christmas off and were looking forward to a long weekend.

"Things aren't nearly as busy as they were the couple of days before Christmas," he said, "but things are still busy and it sure is good for us."