Black Friday has come and gone. Santa arrived at my Mall on November 18th........he would fall asleep from boredom until the last two weekends before Christmas.....then, upwards of 200 people would wait in line for up to 60 minutes on December 22-24. Uh huh.
On Wednesday, December20 th, a white-out blizzard of 18+” of snow and 40 mph winds hit Colorado Springs. It started snowing about 6:00 AM..........by 11:00 AM it was already 6” deep and drifting. The mediocre City of Colorado Springs.......population of 385,000.........only has 36 snow plows. Uh huh.
By noon, visibility was down to 100 feet.......was the mall thinking of closing?? No....it was under discussion. Yet, by then, the Post Office had closed, all military bases, the local and county governments, library's, and all airports. No one was in the mall except employees......no one could even get to the mall because no streets had been plowed, the Metro buses had ceased operations long ago. At noon the Mall slowly let out word that individual stores could go ahead and close without being “fined”. Uh huh. I asked, “So if all the stores in the mall close, the mall is closed?” Not necessarily, was my answer from Mall management. Right.
Thursday, the day after..........the Mall decides to open at 10:00 AM...........except they hadn't plowed the parking lot yet.......nor had any streets been plowed and were covered with abandoned cars! OK, they change it to 2:00 PM. One third of all stores did not open.......employees could not get out of their homes or apartment complexes.........yes, I was there at 9:15 AM. It was busy after 2:00 PM, except for the strange mix of Mall customers. I thought that two things occurred........all trailer parks were emptied....or WalMart was closed!
Friday and Saturday were insanely busy. The Mall opened at 7:00 AM on Sunday, Christmas Eve. The first customers showed up about 10:30 AM.......Mall anchor stores never opened until 9:00 AM....it was sloooooooow all day and no one made their numbers........oh wait, Christmas 2005 was on Sunday.......every store was up against a closing , so one sale made their day's sales! Uh huh.
It's over........... let the madness fade.......stop the 24/7 Christmas music.......take down the decorations.......Spring is on the way!
