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Shopping experts ... it�s in the jeans Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell In a 6:30 a.m. frenzy at Black Bird Friday, Cynthia Ames, right, of Central Point, reaches across the Lee jeans side of the aisle to get a shot at the real treasure: Levi�s 501s for $22.97. Early holiday bargain hunters take aim at Black Bird�s doorstep By Shari Downhill It was a brilliant strategy made successful by unwavering focus. "We knew exactly what we wanted and that�s the only thing we got," grins Wayne Washburn, of Medford, as he unlocks the door of his white Ford truck under the glow of a street light. His wife, Lynn, holds the booty � a shopping bag full of Levi�s 501 Shrink to Fits. Limit: three pair per person. Price tag: $22.97 each, a whopping $10 savings per pair. First stop completed before Washburn�s wristwatch reads 6:30 a.m. The Washburns had avoided Black Bird�s bulging parking lot, parking across the street so they could make a fast getaway for more Christmas shopping, more sales, more lines. It�s a matter of staging and priorities. That�s what it takes to survive the country�s most frenzied shopping day of the year. The popular Black Bird Levi�s Sale has been drawing droves of shoppers for 15 years, says store owner Bill Quitt. He started working at the sporting goods retailer as a box boy three decades ago, eventually buying the store three years ago. "There were about 700 pairs of Levi�s over there," Quitt says. "They�ll be gone by 10 a.m." Used as a "loss leader" � the item stores use to attract shoppers in the competition for precious holiday dollars � Quitt says Black Bird will actually lose about $15,000 from the Levi�s sale. The loss is from money the jeans manufacturer pays retailers to keep their product at or above the "manufacturers� suggested retail price." "This is great," Quitt says, smiling as he watches the crowd grow exponentially. "Oh yeah, I love this." What the store loses from Levi�s, it gains in other sales. Lines snake through the aisles. Shoppers waiting over an hour to pay send runners to pick up additional purchases � overalls, socks, two-way radios, fleece pullovers. In the Levi�s aisle, the crowd stands three deep. The urgency is tangible. The largely male crowd surges without ebbing. Piles of 32x38s, 30x34s, 32x32s are devoured within minutes. "Excuse me, I couldn�t find my size," Mike Ziemba tells a store clerk. He is holding three pairs of 32x32s. "Can I take these and exchange them later for my size?" Ziemba discovers Black Bird Levi�s Sale strategy No. 2. Yes, Mike, you can. Holding his own stack of jeans, Bob Wilson, of Grants Pass, says his wife did the Levi�s shopping last year. "She doesn�t mind this," Wilson says. "But ... all these people. It�s a bit overwhelming." Past the camouflage suspenders, up the stairs from the apple press and beer brewing supplies, Nellie Wildey waits for her two teenage daughters to try on snowboard boots. "I told them I was leaving at 5:45 a.m. this morning," Wildey says. The promise of new snowboard gear was enough to coax the girls out of bed before sunrise. "It�s like, �We�re going shopping,�" says Wildey�s 16-year old, Genni. "I love shopping. So, I got up." "My other daughter, Dennel, never gets up," Wildey says. Dennel emerges with a box, flipping silky hair out of her eyes. "She got up today," Wildey says. Quitt says Black Bird sales receipts the day after Thanksgiving will surpass what the store will ring up for the entire month of January. "And we�ll do it all before noon," he says. Quitt bolsters his store staff for the massive sales event with reinforcements from other departments: office workers, buyers ... and his wife. "That�s her over there filling that bag," Quitt points. In line, shoppers strain to see the front of the line. "There�s a noticeable turn up by the scarves," one woman tells a shopper behind her. "You can see it." In her red-checked baseball cap, Peggy Liles looks over her shoulder to her husband, who has come to tell her he�ll wait for her outside. "Hey, that�s not fair," she calls to his retreating back. "These aren�t my jeans." In her basket, Liles has ski gloves, overalls, two-way radios, and, of course, the Levi�s. "I was at Fred Meyer last year for their sock sale," Liles says. "I was surprised by how serious those men were about their socks. "I just said, �Hey, I won�t get in your way.�" Searching for the end of one of the store�s many check-out lines, Gerry Pare weaves through the shopping baskets and bodies. "I feel like a salmon swimming upstream," she laughs. Settling into the slowly moving line, Pare bolsters herself and those around her for the long wait ahead. "In times like this," she says, "you just have to hunker down and talk." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.