Lincolnites Busy Shopping on Black Friday
Roxanne Stauffer of Milford checks out the Grab Bags by Lincoln's Chris Haeffner at the GROW Nebraska gift shop at Westfield Gateway. Roxanne was shopping with her mom Brenda Stauffer who said "we're not power shoppers on Black Friday, but we do this as mother/daughter time."
In Lincoln, the hard contact events were before dawn.
The highly competitive half-speed hiking -- with one hand on cell phone, one hand on list - was all over the place at midday.
And there was even some bumper-to-bumper racing to the few empty parking spaces.
As of mid-afternoon on a beautiful Black Friday, there appeared to have been no season-ending injuries. The damage seemed limited to the credit limits on swipe-scarred credit cards.
Lincoln Police Capt. Joe Wright said shoppers were out in huge numbers early Friday, but there were no problems.
"No one's going to jail," he said.
Police were called to Toys 'R' Us, but it was just concern over the number of people waiting to get in.
Goodwill's downtown store suffered a failure of its registers, said Sara Kramer, director of services and development, but that got solved in 40 minutes.
A tour of Westfield Gateway mall at midday was a trip with thousands of shoppers spending briskly before the Cornhuskers took on Colorado.
The carousel had a few empty mounts. The massage chairs didn't.
Inside the mall, Grow Nebraska filled a little storefront for the second year in a row, competing for attention with much bigger names and noises.
The nonprofit helps more than 300 of the state's cottage businesses get going and grab a piece of the shopping action.
True to the new ground rules of prudent retailing, they even sent out an e-mail to remind Nebraskans they were open before sunup Friday at stores in Kearney and Grand Island malls, and in this temporary shop at Westfield Gateway.
Ima Gene Mason of Tecumseh is the coordinator of the Lincoln store and one of 70 or so Nebraska members who have goods displayed at the Lincoln store.
Her Im's Countryside Painting is a collection of carved and painted wooden ornaments and signs, one of which bears the message: "Good morning. Let the stress begin."
Small, local business was happening.
"We opened at 20 'til 6 and have had people in ever since," Mason said.
These are definitely uniquely Nebraska items, nothing you'd find at a big box or chain.
Lincoln artist Bert Anderson's Christmas ornaments were big sellers Friday, she said, along with T-shirts from Ink Images in Omaha, H&R Popcorn in Gibbon and Mason's own line of goods.
"We tell them everything is made or designed in Nebraska," Mason said. "A lot of them are very small companies, one or two-person operations."
At the doorway is Stewart Olson, a Lincoln grandpa offering tasty samples and selling Opa's line of mix to make corn chip dip, coney dog seasoning or sloppy joes.
"Opa's German for grandpa," Olson said. "I'm German. It's a lot shorter than using grandpa."
But nothing could compare to the Pig Seeds from Sharon Walde's Heirloom Treasures in Winside.
Directions for starting your own herd are on the back of the packet.
Story by: Richard Piersol of the Lincoln Journal Star
