Stores jammed after Christmas
As published on page one of the Dec. 27, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.
'Twas the day after Christmas, but the holiday wasn't over for local retailers and shoppers on the prowl for bargains.
Along Keene's Main Street, a steady stream of people strolled the sidewalks in the crisp afternoon air Monday.
Stores were humming with activity, though without the frantic edge of the pre-Christmas rush, as shoppers carried on the momentum of a successful holiday season for businesses.
"We've had a great year this Christmas; people were shopping downtown a lot," said Carson Arnold, manager of Turn if Up music store. "Every day in the week leading up to Christmas was almost as busy as Pumpkin fest."
A dozen people were flipping through CDs and records Monday.
"We're getting gift certificates and people picking up orders," Arnold said of the day-after-Christmas crowd. "There's a lot of families that are up; people are still on vacation."
Sharon and Richard Bryant of Wrentham, Mass., were perusing the aisles in Your Kitchen Store, also on Main Street.
They had thought to head straight home after spending Christmas with family in Keene, Sharon Bryant said, but decided to stop in and pick up a kitchen gadget their 11-year-old granddaughter had introduced to them that morning: a frying pan designed to cook exactly one egg.
"We just find that Keene has so many wonderful stores, such great shopping, and such friendly people," she said.
Christopher J. Fox and Anna Domyancic-Fox of Keene also stopped in to Your Kitchen Store, so he could buy her a post-Christmas gift of a German vegetable slicer.
"She mentioned she wanted it, but I couldn't have found this on my own," he said.
Not everyone in the stores was looking to shop. Jason Purdy and Melissa Cynewski of Keene were headed for Miller Bros.-Newton men's clothing to exchange some too-large shirts Cynewski's mother had bought for Purdy.
They were hoping to get through the day without buying anything more than coffee.
"We're going to take it easy this year; so far it's gone pretty well," Purdy said.
Keene's shopping malls and big box stores were also bustling Monday.
Tyler W. Prest, 17, of Northfield, Mass., was leaving the Game Stop at Monadnock Marketplace with a brand-new copy of "Skyrim," the latest title in the Elder Scroll video game series, for his Xbox 360.
He bought the game with gift certificates and cash his parents had given him for Christmas.
Gift certificates were convenient for his parents and preferable to "the mess that they might pull on their own," he said.
Game Stop was offering a buy-two, get-one-free deal on used games, but Monday offered slim pickings for bargain hunters, with very few items marked for sale or discount -- with the exception of items with a Christmas theme.
The automatic doors at Keene's Walmart and Target stores hardly had time to close with Monday's steady stream of shoppers.
Those returning gifts, such as the family of four who walked into Walmart carrying an Acer computer in its opened box, were outnumbered by the people leaving with rolls of Christmas wrapping paper (50 percent off) sticking out of shopping bags.
Claudia A Holmes of Windham, Vt. and her 4-year-old grandson, Jake, were leaving Target with newly-acquired laundry soap and wrapping paper.
They came to Keene with a few friends to get out of the house and check for sales, rather than with a specific shopping goal, she said.
"Who can resist going out on a day like today?" she asked, gesturing to the bright sun.
tagged with: business, Keene N.H., retail
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