(Courtesy of sxc.hu)
Sears at Mount Berry Square mall will open at 8 p.m. Thursday. The mall itself will have 22 of its stores opening at midnight Thursday.
Pal’s Coffee + Company will be opening their outside doors at 10:30 p.m. to provide a hot beverage to those who may want to line up outside the main entrance to the mall.
Belk will be among those who will open at midnight and will be giving away gift cards to the first 250 people in line. Rack Room Shoes will be giving away gifts to the first 50 shoppers. One of those gifts includes free shoes for a year.
Belk, American Eagle, Express, Victoria’s Secret, The Children’s Place, Justice and Aeropostale will all open at midnight.
Other stores opening at midnight include Bath & Body Works, Dawg House, Finish Line, Hibbett Sports, Initially Twisted, Journey’s, Lids, Maurices, Players, rue21 and Shoe Department.
Chick-fil-A and Great American Cookie Co. will open at 4 a.m., while Milano’s Pizza and La Michoacana in the food court will open at 5 a.m.
J.C. Penney will be among a number of stores that will not open until 6 a.m. Friday.
The Kmart on Hicks Drive will be open Thanksgiving Day from 6 a.m. until 4 p.m., then close until 8 p.m., when it will re-open until 3 a.m. Friday.
The store will close again for a couple of hours and re-open at 5 a.m. Friday.
Both Walmarts in Rome will remain open on their normal 24-hour schedule Thursday and Friday.
At Riverbend shopping center, Ross will be open at 5 a.m. Friday. Barnes & Noble, Michaels and Talbots will open 7 a.m., and T.J. Maxx will open at 8 a.m.
Smartypants, 405 Broad St., will be opening at 9 a.m. Friday. Koman’s, 219 Broad St., will open at 9:30 a.m Friday, while Paula’s Boutique on Broad will open at 10 a.m.
Greene’s Jeweler’s, 328 Broad St., will open at 10 a.m., while Ford, Gittings & Kane Jewelers, 312 Broad St., will open at its regular time of 9:30 a.m. Geri Cheeley, owner of The Clotheshorse, 419 Broad St., said she will actually wait until noon Friday to open.
“Shopping locally is the most effective way to save and create local jobs,” said Angie Lewis, chairman of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce board and president of Citizens First Bank. “In this current economy, we should take every possible opportunity to seek products and services locally.”
I will say that this story makes me so sad. I know children that will be thankful if they get a "new" (read pre-owned, but different from the ones they have) pair of shoes for Christmas.
I used to go Black Friday shopping but it's just not worth it. People are horrible. The lines will be full of people pushing, cussing, and of course the obligatory story or two about someone getting killed over a Tickle-Me-Elmo type toy.
I heard a lady at work bragging/complaining that she had already spent $1500 on her two kids and had more to buy. I now know why her kids are such monsters and why we all run and hide when they come to work with her.
It's only going to get worse, I know that, but since I stopped the Black Friday shopping, my holidays have improved dramatically.