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Foot Soldiers Mail Tribune / Jim Craven A shopper holds up a basket of socks to make it through the crowd at the Fred Meyer store on Crater Lake Highway at 6 a.m. Friday. The half-price sock sale and other early-bird specials at stores throughout the country signal the start of the holiday shopping season. At Fred Meyer's annual sock sale, savvy buyers run, don't walk By MEG LANDERS Clare Bruch's sock-sale shopping strategy comes from experience. "Don't take a grocery cart," says the Medford resident, who is in her eighth year of Fred Meyer's post-Thanksgiving sale. Bring your own bag, she says, proudly holding up a large cloth bag that could hold dozens of pairs of the half-priced socks. "It's such a bargain, you can't not buy them," says Bruch, waiting outside the front doors at 5:30 a.m., just half an hour before the store will open. She doesn't mind the wait this year, because the weather is milder than it has been in previous years. "It's not wet, it's not cold, so we're happy," she says. Bruch is a member of the growing mob outside Fred Meyer on Crater Lake Highway waiting for the doors to open at 6 a.m. Part of Friday-after-Thanksgiving store sales, Freddy's is doing its part in kicking off the holiday shopping season by offering its entire stock of socks at 50 percent off. Inside, staff members, like busy elves, have been bustling around since 4:30 a.m. putting the couple thousand socks out in boxes and on peg hooks. Also on sale are flannel sheets, gift wrap, luggage, slippers, candles. The store is offering free cider, coffee and doughnut holes, and cashiers are setting up 23 to 25 registers for the sale that lasts till 11 a.m. Lorri Richetelli is one of the elves. "We have men's, women's, children's, trouser socks, and knee socks," says the accessories cashier. "We have to make sure all the signs are out, and all the merchandise is out and visible." Richetelli says this is her first experience of the legendary day, and she's already seen customers' enthusiasm. "People have been coming in the last couple days," she says. "They actually scope it out first." Co-workers have warned her of the 6 a.m. mad dash to the socks. "I'm going to watch, but I'm going to be out of the way," she says. At 6 a.m., a voice rings out that it is time to unlock the doors. Staff echoes the call. Cashiers move into position. Key-bearing employees head toward the doors. Locks click. Sprinters burst through the doors, followed by the walkers. Many shoppers grab carts and enter the flow, and within moments, the rush slows to a traffic jam. Minutes later, Claudia Grover, Central Point bargain hunter extraordinaire, has filled her cart and planted herself in a corner. She and her daughter Abbie, 15, have unique buying tactics. They run in and quickly grab any merchandise they might want, throw it in their cart, then sort through the items before getting into line at a register. Grover, who cut her vacation short to make it home for the sock sale, says that on Thanksgiving Day, she and her family spread out the sale ads on the floor and write out their lists on index cards. They arrived at the doors just after 5 a.m., she says, and at first glance the number of people in line ahead of them concerned them. "But most of the people in front of us were for Hot Wheels," she says. "They weren't sock people." Grover, who estimates she's in her ninth year at the sock sale, says the event is important to her. "Because I have seven children, I only buy one time a year," she says, adding that she spent $281 on socks last year. Mary Weissgerber of Jacksonville loves the sale crowds. "This is a way to kick off the season," she says, waiting at the register to purchase some socks and towels. "You get your adrenalin up." Weissgerber, who plans to hit the mall sales next, says she thinks this year's sock-sale mob is more tame and courteous than those of the past, and she wonders whether the Sept. 11 tragedy has toned down the shopping mood. "I don't know if (the tone) was due to that, but it was different," she says. She says maintaining the holiday shopping tradition is important in moving forward after the tragedy. "It says we're ready to get on with the normalcy of our lives," she says. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.