The street of deals

This father's odyssey takes 8½ hours and covers seven stops, three of which sit on one well-traveled Omaha street where treasure and temptation lurk.

To return safely to his wife and eight children without his wallet too empty, Pat O'Donnell of Omaha carefully plots his Black Friday course along 72nd Street.

In a city where it once seemed all the new retail development went west, this street in recent years has offered shopping destinations as far north as Sorensen Park Plaza and as far south as Shadow Lake Towne Center.

But adventurer O'Donnell — because he shares a goal of many in this recession to get a lot done without spending too much — has chosen a central stretch that offers a mix of old and new storefronts.

He inherited this job eight years ago after complaining to his wife, Kelly, that she had spent too much money while braving Black Friday crowds.

So list in hand — “I have a total plan,” he says — O'Donnell this year strikes first at the 72nd and Hickory Streets Walmart. Many of the always-open store's special sale prices took effect at 5 a.m.

Aware of that, O'Donnell arrives at 4 a.m. and steers his full cart into line at 4:45 a.m. and waits only 10 minutes.

By then, all 26 checkout lanes are open, with lines stretching to the back of the store, reports a clerk whose name is well-suited for the day: Patience.

With O'Donnell's two-page list organized by store, then by item, he next ventures farther north on 72nd Street to Kohl's, where he pulls two carts through aisles crowded with deals and customers. Just a handful of people, however, wait to check out at 6 a.m., two hours after Kohl's 4 a.m. opening.

“Seems kind of dead,” says O'Donnell, the veteran Black Friday shopper.

Another Kohl's shopper reports the opposite: At her first stop at the Bellevue Walmart, “it was too crowded to park,” says Kristina Bohnert of Bellevue.

Certainly the masses outside the Nebraska Furniture Mart at 6:30 a.m. would get the attention of any economist. An estimated 1,400 people stood in one of two lines that wrapped around the massive building on 72nd Street.

One Papillion family of five claimed title to first in line — but the Sklenars got there at 3:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Day to do so.

Docking stations for iPods are what started this family's odyssey. The sirens also sang of $229-after-rebate Compaq laptops, so John and Kristi Sklenar made a list and a plan. They set up a tent and braved a chilly, starry night with their two teenage daughters, a niece and a growing line of blanket-wrapped bargain hunters.

“Kristi,” John tells his wife in the dark minutes before 7 a.m., “you need to free up your hands.” A teeth-chattering Kristi obliges, putting away her gloves and a Nebraska Furniture Mart ad.

“We have assignments,” John Sklenar explains.

Near him are a pair of brothers, laughing about their overnight adventure on the store's sidewalk. Charles Burkett, 30, had plugged a roaster pan into a wall outlet and cooked 56 hotdogs for other line-waiters Thursday night.

“They need porta-johns out here,” he says.

“Let's do this!” a shopper exclaims at 7:02 a.m. as a security guard cuts the tape and doors open.

Seventeen minutes later, the initial line has emptied into the store, forming multiple lines around checkouts and TV and computer stations, and the new arrivals stream in. But by now the 42-inch plasma TVs on special are sold out.

Staffers wear patient smiles as more than a few first-timers look at each other and say: “This is crazy! This is nuts!”

One woman pushes a cart carrying three Dyson vacuums through a tornado of people, arms piled high with electronics. Hands grab at anything, and soon the table of $19.99 Norelco razors and $34.99 Philips toothbrushes is empty.

A woman caught in the whirl cries helplessly: “Where are the movies? Does anyone know where the movies are?”

A salesman tapes “SOLD” signs onto a cherry-red front-loading washer and dryer.

Meanwhile, men in fluorescent vests holding tall, numbered poles stand behind winding, 100-person checkout lines with signs that read: “END OF LINE.”

At 7:34 a.m., Burkett, the line-waiting hotdog cooker, waves his receipts in the air in a sign of conquest. With his brother and friend, the threesome had spent $4,000.

“We've got three vacuums, a roaster oven, a 22-inch LCD monitor … ,” he begins.

“Two laptops and three plasma TVs,” his friend Josh Olson finishes.

Olson then adds: “I hope my wife doesn't care. She doesn't know I was buying a TV.”

Later, other stops along the strip offer no waits or shorter waits.

Anyone who entered the Sports Authority an hour after its 5 a.m. opening could have come and gone with a $9.99 Wilson basketball in minutes. The store's rush had occurred earlier, and it already was sold out of the $269 treadmills.

By 7 a.m., O'Donnell has finished at Office Depot on 72nd Street and sailed off the 72nd Street strip for stops at Toys R Us, Shopko and Radio Shack.

But even this disciplined shopper, who covers purchases with tarps and doesn't deviate from the list unless he spots “a very good deal,” could not avoid returning to 72nd Street.

His final stop?

Nebraska Furniture Mart.

O'Donnell needs a cordless phone. He wants an iPod docking station.

He returns home shortly before 12:30 p.m. with …

The $69 phone.

Years of Black Friday adventures have taught him the danger of impulse buys.

“You can definitely get trapped.”

Contact the writer: 444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com

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