Holiday shopping strong in area

Tillie Archuleta, 72, finished her Christmas shopping Saturday, stopping at Wal-Mart and North Plains Mall.

By Dec. 10, Archuleta said she will have the gifts in the mail to her family — clothes for the younger kids (she never buys them toys because they have to many already), money for the high-school students, and a household item for each couple.

“I have a big family and I have them scattered all over,” she said.

A veteran Christmas shopper, Archuleta is a mother of seven, grandmother of 12 and great-grand mother of nine. She said she didn’t want to go shopping on Friday because of the windy weather and the crowds.

Clovis stores were plenty crowded on Friday.

Black Friday — known for bringing stores out of the red and second only to the Saturday before Christmas as the biggest shopping day of the year — lived up to expectations, according to Clovis store owners and managers.

Managers from Sears, J.C. Penney and Hastings all said there were crowds of more than 30 people gathered outside the doors before they opened on Friday.

At J.C. Penney, 500 free snow globes were gone an hour after the store opened its doors at 5:30 a.m. Sears gave away 200 gift cards ($10 each) 10 minutes after opening its doors at 6 a.m.

Hastings’ manager said Friday-after-Thanksgiving sales were up $3,000 from last year. Workers at the Main Street Crafters Mall in downtown Clovis said sales at their Moonlight Madness sale from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday tripled from last year’s sales.

Bruce Gray, owner of Roden Smith for 32 years, said this was the best day after Thanksgiving the store has ever had. He said the store’s sales have grown steadily since the election ended.

“Whatever is going on in Clovis, let’s keep it going,” Gray said.

A crying young child who didn’t want to sit in Santa Claus’ lap seemed the only one who wasn’t in good spirits at the mall on Saturday.

As Archuleta took a break on a bench, two people stopped to say hello and exchange holiday greetings with her. She said she enjoys the social part of shopping at this time of year and said she often sees “friends I haven’t seen in a long time.”

But Archuleta said her Christmas shopping isn’t the same as in years past. Before the mall or Wal-Mart came to Clovis, Archuleta shopped at TG&Y and Alco for Christmas. Money was tight during those times, and she said she and her husband often had to borrow money from a loan agency to buy Christmas presents for their seven children.

“It was kind of a hard time,” she said.

Now she doesn’t have to borrow money and doesn’t use credit cards, she said.

“I think sometimes (people) get carried away with credit,” she said “That plastic money gets out of hand.”

Archuleta said she and her husband never had credit cards, but they managed to give their children a good Christmas every year. Now, Archuleta said, the children are returning the favor.

“We have good kids,” said Archuleta, explaining how her children now work to give their parents a good Christmas.

“Our kids give us money, and then they give us a gift too,” she said.