{"id":289190,"date":"2018-11-26T06:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T20:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=289190"},"modified":"2018-11-26T06:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T20:06:12","slug":"not-the-usual-black-friday-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/not-the-usual-black-friday-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Not the usual Black Friday sale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of shoppers show up at an I Love Saipan outlet in Garapan last Friday to take advantage of the huge discounts and sale on clothing. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saipan joined the Black Friday frenzy last Friday\u2014a day after Thanksgiving\u2014as has become a tradition all over the United States, with people snapping up sales deals to get a head start on their Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n

This time, though, many shoppers on Saipan were focused not on luxury items but to replenish belongings that they lost during Super Typhoon Yutu.<\/p>\n

According to Liberty Department Store manager Frances Yumul, they weren\u2019t expecting many people to show up at the store last Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that half of the island was damaged, many homes were destroyed by the typhoon so I thought people don\u2019t have the spirit to go out and buy because many lost their houses and jobs. Because of that, we weren\u2019t really expecting many shoppers. It turns out that many people showed up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yumul said that most shoppers bought items that they needed for their homes. \u201cI noticed that most of our customers come for the household items, bathroom items, baby items such as clothing and toys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discounts at Liberty Department Store ranged from 15 percent to 55 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s Black Friday Sale is totally different from last year; last year was better. But we know what everyone has been through and one thing we did was to keep the prices the same as last year\u2019s. We don\u2019t want to raise the prices post-typhoon and we gave further discounts,\u201d she added<\/p>\n

I Love Saipan was also taken aback by the turnout at their store. People started lining up at 8am, even though the store opens at 10am. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting a good turnout because many in the community lost their homes and we were not sure if they wanted to shop after Typhoon Yutu. We didn\u2019t prepare by adding cashiers because I really thought that it will be just like an ordinary day,\u201d said store manager Chirapan McGuire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is actually busy, as last year was kind of quiet\u2026Lately, we got a lot of customers from employees of Best Sunshine. Today, we have people shopping for clothes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ayana Tengco from Garapan was one of the early shoppers at I Love Saipan. She needed to replenish her clothes. \u201cI got clothes for school and for whenever I go out with family and friends. I was happy that they were really cheap and the quality is nice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Payless Shoes store manager Mariaflor DeLeon Guerrero thought that shoes would be the last thing on people\u2019s minds after Typhoon Yutu. \u201cAfter the typhoon, we weren\u2019t really expecting this much turnout because many people lost their houses and belongings. I expected them to spend more for their immediate needs like house, furniture etc., but\u2026our Black Friday sale was quite successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year\u2019s sale was really successful as our store was totally packed. Now, customers come and go. We are feeling great, however, to help the community this way that\u2019s why we are giving this kind of promotion to help them to be able to purchase items that they need,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Nenita Salvador of Chalan Kiya, who works as a cleaner, was eager to use the shoes she found. \u201cI lost my work shoes during the typhoon and I am glad I found a pair that is comfortable and cheap. Our home has been damaged, so my family and I have been slowly repairing it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuying new shoes was not a priority because I consider it a luxury at this time\u2026but this makes me feel like going back to normal life and I am looking forward to wearing my new shoes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saipan joined the Black Friday frenzy last Friday\u2014a day after Thanksgiving\u2014as has become a tradition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":289191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19162,6858,67,23107],"class_list":["post-289190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-black-friday-sale","tag-liberty-department-store","tag-people","tag-super-typhoon-yutu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}