Shoppers beat the rush, go out on Thanksgiving

Diana Ulibarra looked left, looked right, then slipped quickly and quietly, like a woman on the run, into Sports Authority on Thursday.

Maybe it was the ghost-town-like feeling in the big Murray shopping center, where all but one store had shut its doors in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Maybe it was her own conscience nagging at her to get home and tend to the turkey in the oven.

"I don't know," she said, sheepishly, looking to her daughter and husband for an explanation. "It just doesn't feel like we should be here."

Most retail stores stood silent Thursday, their owners and patrons home with family eating themselves into a traditional holiday food coma. But a quiet minority of stores like Radio Shack, The Gap and Banana Republic, joined the athletic goods store, which has kept its doors open on Thanksgiving Day for nearly a decade, in welcoming shoppers.

"We wouldn't do it if people didn't come," said Melanie Lance, manager of the Murray Sports Authority. "People want to shop."

Not too many people showed up the first Thanksgiving the store kept its doors open, Lance said. But after the company started offering a 25 percent storewide discount, people started trickling in steadily. Thursday, several shoppers said they had made a Thanksgiving tradition out of making a trip to the athletic goods store to "get a jump on holiday shopping."

"We see a lot of grandpas, dads and sons who are waiting for football and food to get started," Lance said. "They have time to kill so they just come shop."

Larry Curtis, 62, usually kills time before the turkey feast in front of the television, but his 10-year-old daughter, Kaitlynn, convinced him to go to The Gateway this year instead.

"She's determined to spend me into poverty," he said. Lucky for Curtis, who lives in Salt Lake City, only a handful of stores were open.

By Friday morning, the cobblestone streets at The Gateway in Salt Lake City are sure to be packed with crazed holiday shoppers eager to snag a good deal, but Thursday only a dozen or so shoppers wandered through.

Those who did come, enjoyed the quiet.

"Shopping on Thanksgiving day is great because you beat the crowds," said Kelly Haslam, 43, who hit up Old Navy and The Gap with her daughter Thursday. "It's nice and calm, and you can look through things without having to fight over stuff like you do the day after Thanksgiving."

For Dave Jacobson of Holladay, like most who pursued retail stores Thursday, snagging deals on Thanksgiving didn't mean sacrificing tradition.

"It's no big deal," said Jacobson, 34, who picked up a new pair of skis Thursday. "I'll be home in time for dinner with my wife and kids."

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com