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Read comments (2)Goldammer said "Black Friday," as it's known in the retail trade, brought the Marshall store its best traffic and best "blitz" event they've had at the store's newest Marshall location.
The current store opened in 2005, although Wal-Mart has been been a local presence since 1981.
"Every one of the 600 or so shopping carts in the store was in motion" by 5 a.m., Goldammer said. "I didn't see it myself, but employees told me the parking lot was full, too."
The store employs between 250 and 300 associates; 150 of them were on hand Friday morning at 4:30 for the expected rush.
All of the store's 19 cash registers were manned -- even the four "self checkout" lanes were converted to regular cashier operation to cope with the onslaught of customers.
"We had lines backed up into our jewelry and soft goods areas," Goldammer said, "and there were some hour-long waits."
"But," he added, "everybody was taking it in stride ... there were no fights. We had a very good crowd."
Not all "Black Friday" crowds are as well-mannered. A New York television station reported Friday that one Wal-Mart employee died and four others were injured in an early-morning crush of shoppers.
Goldammer said people seemed to know just what they were looking for -- and they were looking most often for appliances like a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.
The high-end, high-dollar mixer normally sells for close to $300, making Wal-Mart's price of $130 very attractive.
Other popular items like HDTVs went very quickly, Goldammer said.
"We had eight or ten models -- and all but two of them are sold out."
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Just one of several reasons I don't visit Wal*Mart. I imagine the Walton family reacted similarly to the shoppers when they learned of the man who was trampled to death.
A few days like today and perhaps some of the tax revenue shortfall will be made up. Thoughts of the Saline County Commission: If they spend, we can repair it.
I'm telling you, Black Friday is a woman's first day of hunting season. The scout, and mark territory before the day. They spend all week packing (coupons) and planning out the day. They are up way before any animal, and are in the field (parking lot) way before the animals are moving. THen that first bit of daylight comes through (doors open) and the adrinal kicks and and bam they just start shooting!