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Collier shoppers not playing games on last Wii-kend before Christmas
DAVID ALBERS / Daily News
Hundreds of shoppers file through the Coastland Center shopping mall on the last Saturday before Christmas.
DAVID ALBERS / Daily News
Sales person Ortal Elfasi explains the skin and nail products she sells at the Dead Sea Spa boutique to Jouko Heikkinen, a vacationer from Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007, in Naples.
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They parked on the grass outside the food court at Coastland Center mall, and the curb they had to jump to reach the greenery presumably meant nothing in the larger scheme of things.
Crowds teemed through Naples-area retailers on the last weekend before Christmas.
Or, more precisely given the popularity of the Nintendo video game system, the last “Wii-kend” before Christmas.
Curt Smythe, 55, of Naples, carried a bulky Guitar Hero III video game under his arm Saturday afternoon at Coastland. It was a present to go with the Wii he had purchased earlier in the season for his 15-year-old daughter.
“He waited 2 1/2 hours for a Wii to get one at GameStop,” said his wife, Mirta, 50.
The Smythes came back to the mall to see if they could find Guitar Hero.
“We just got lucky,” Smythe said.
Anyone looking for a Wii on Saturday at Coastland was disappointed. GameStop’s been out of stock for a while and K.B. Toys didn’t carry the system. That didn’t stop the line from reaching 23 people deep at GameStop during mid-afternoon despite registers constantly ringing up purchases.
Brad Weston, store manager at the Best Buy in North Naples, also reported customers’ fondness for the Wii, as well as various MP3 players. He saw more crowds Saturday than the season had otherwise produced.
“I have seen a slight increase in I don’t want to say desperation, but a lot of people have been waiting ‘til the last minute,” Weston said.
At the new Super Target off Immokalee Road in North Naples, Ellen Mendez, Melody Singh and Gladys Mendez of Golden Gate Estates were three of those last-minute shoppers.
Between the three, they needed to buy more than 60 gifts over the weekend. They hoped to find everything they needed at Target and later at Coastland Center on Saturday.
“I was in a Christmas musical and I work,” said Ellen Mendez, a 44-year-old medical assistant. “That’s why I had to wait until today.”
Already in their cart was an “Appletini set” for a relative in the Bradenton area, where the three planned to have Christmas dinner with 30 other family members.
“That’s so she can handle all of us,” Ellen Mendez said.
Cheryl Allen, a Target employee, said 16,500 customers came through the store’s doors last week and she expected approximately 6,000 people on Saturday.
Not surprisingly, one of Target’s hottest sellers was the Wii.
Allen said her official job title at Target was “ETL Replenishment.” When asked if that meant she was a “manager,” Allen replied it did. Then she said it’d be better to describe her as a “manager” regardless.
“If they hear ‘Replenishment’ they might come after me when we don’t have any Wiis,” she said.
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Wii bee gittin' our game on....Howezz bout' you-ooze peoples and NDN Writers?
#1 Posted by JunkYardDog on December 22, 2007 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wal-Mart had 4 registers open at 9 o'clock. I guess there commercial was right, they would have more open.
#2 Posted by jaedenhamernik on December 23, 2007 at 12:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good Catholics should listen to the Pope
and end the consumerism of Christmas!
#3 Posted by will1313 on December 23, 2007 at 1:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hooray for irretrievable debt in the tens of thousands of dollars for the average middle class family!! People keep on spending until youre in the poor house and keep on buying Chinese made goods!! Spend as much as you can now before the sinking ship we are all in is completely submerged!!
#4 Posted by schlogz on December 23, 2007 at 1:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Jeez, what holiday spirit around here.
#5 Posted by MIAbrat on December 23, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Some of us were just out shopping for groceries and normal stuff having finished with any special holiday purchases a long time ago.
The traffic was full of those who seemed to have had too much liquid cheer and the stores full of many who took up a full isle with a single cart. One lady slammed a cooler door into my back and pushed on it and me (I am over 6'2" and played some football in college) when I was getting our orange juice from the adjacent door. I just smiled at her but she was so rude and determined to bulldoze her way down the isles, I just laughed at her instead. Bet she is someone's lovely wife and daughter who just didn't realize that manners do count. On the other hand we found other shoppers to be kind and thoughtful.
The stores were crowded, but milk, bread and juice were needed so we braved the crowds.
Merry Christmas will1313. Not everyone is consumed with consumerism!
#6 Posted by BlueTonguedVole on December 23, 2007 at 9:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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