Black Friday at Scranton's Steamtown Mall

Posted by: Monica Gagnier on November 28

As my cousin and I drove from Clarks Summit, Pa. a little before 8 a.m. on Black Friday in search of “door-buster” bargains at the Mall at Steamtown, my eyes weren’t quite open yet, but I did notice a sign that said: “Scranton: Welcome Home.”

To the cynical traveler, the greeting may seem corny or forced, but not in Scranton on the day after Thanksgiving. For one thing, the sign seems to acknowledge that Scranton is a place that many people have chosen to leave.

In 1930, Scranton, then a major producer of anthracite coal and iron ore, had a population of 130,000. Recent estimates put the population of the gritty city, the hometown of Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden and the setting for the NBC TV show, The Office, at about 70,000.

Despite the drop in population, there’s evidence that Scrantonians are coming home, to raise their kids and to enjoy their retirement in a state (Pennsylvania is actually a commonwealth) where Social Security benefits, public and private pensions, and IRA distributions are not subject to state income tax.

Scranton is also a destination for many holiday travelers, as large extended families gather to enjoy a turkey dinner and all the trimmings in the house where Grandma or Auntie lives.

Among the shoppers I met on Friday were Charlotte Singer and her nieces Debbie Lloyd and Carol Morgan. Singer lives in Allentown, Pa., and her nieces live in Paupack, Pa., but they make a point of shopping together, usually in Scranton, on Black Friday. “It’s a tradition with us,” said Singer.

Singer and her nieces were eyeing a Liz Claiborne red leather jacket for $199 that is normally $420 and wondering if their 20%-off coupon was going to apply to the door-buster price. They were shopping for Lloyd’s and Morgan’s mother, on behalf of her husband.

As a Black Friday newbie, I was prepared for the worst. But though I heard about an accident near Wal-Mart and nightmarish traffic heading to Target, the crowds were calm in downtown Scranton.

There were no fistfights at the Mall at Steamtown, despite the lure of bargains like a 40-in. Sony Bravia flat-screen TV for $899 at Boscov's that is ticketed at $1,499.99, or a 5-piece place setting of Fiesta Dinnerware for $18.97 at Bon-Ton that is regularly $48. Both door-busters were in effect until 1 p.m. Friday only.

The shopping mall that was my destination stands next to a National Historic Site called Steamtown. Like many public amenities in Pennsylvania, it is an example of pork barrel, which goes by the politically correct term "earmarks" today. Without the efforts of former Pennsylvania Representative Joseph McDade, there would be no Steamtown and no shopping mall in downtown Scranton.

Steamtown is not far from where George and Selden Scranton bought land for the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co. in 1840. According to my research, the Scrantons were the second largest iron producer in the U.S. from 1880 to 1902. (Don't ask me who the first was.)

Although most shoppers didn't realize it, Black Friday at Steamtown might have gone the way of the locomotive if a financing package that includes loans from the city of Scranton hadn't come through on Nov. 21. Boscov's future was uncertain until the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of all the retailer's assets to a family group led by Albert Boscov and Edwin Lakin. Boscov's, which operates 39 middle-market department stores in the MidAtlantic region, entered bankruptcy on Aug. 4.

In addition to being an anchor tenant, the Boscov family is one of the owners of the Mall at Steamtown, which opened 15 years ago. "If Boscov's hadn't been bailed out, the mall would have gone under," said Bob Melley, who runs several kiosks at Steamtown and two other area malls.

Melley returned to Scranton from Florida 15 years ago when Steamtown first opened to raise his kids. His main business has been sunglasses, which seems a better fit for Florida than Pennsylvania. His latest venture is the first NBC kiosk dedicated to, you guessed it, The Office.

Not being much of a TV watcher, I boned up on my Office trivia by watching mini-episodes of two minutes each on the official Web site before my Black Friday trip to Scranton. Could this be the reason there is a Mifflin Blvd. in downtown Scranton?

If you're a fan of The Office, you'll know that the series revolves around a paper sales company called Dunder-Mifflin. Among the Christmas gifts I picked up at the NBC kiosk was a T-shirt that says "Dunder-Mifflin: As Green as We Need to Be" in bright green.

Melley told me the kiosk, which opened on Nov. 1, is doing a booming business and in the 15 minutes I chatted with him, the sales I witnessed seemed to support his upbeat assessment. "Our price points are right where you want to be: in the $5 to $30 range," he said.

Like many Scrantonians, Melley is pumped up about The Office and not just because it's putting money in his pocket. "You can't believe what the show has done for Scranton," he said. "It's got people standing a little taller around here."

Despite the boom times of the last 15 years, there was never a spending spree in Scranton, Melley says. "This mall is always steady," he says.

Although there has been some grumbling that Steamtown is a white elephant that is draining U.S. taxpayers, the site devoted to the history of steam locomotives brings in a fair amount of convention business. Many of the shoppers at the Mall at Steamtown are from out of town, Melley says.

But even if things never got irrationally exuberant in Scranton, the recent credit crunch and crash on Wall Street is still taking its toll on the mall. Although Boscov's has remained open despite its bankruptcy, some stores are closing. An outlet of Steve & Barry's was holding a liquidation sale on Black Friday and my cousin informed me that B. Moss was also going out of business.

Although there were long lines at Boscov's to cash in on a "buy one, get the second for 1 cent" door-buster that essentially made many items of apparel, including lingerie, half-price for a few hours, the shoppers at Steamtown weren't opening their wallets on Black Friday without giving it some thought.

Kara Mason, a skincare specialist who started working at the Clarins counter in the Bon-Ton a month and a half ago, said Clarins was exceeding its plan, as were many of the other cosmetics purveyors in the store. She said she wasn't authorized to reveal what percentage gain the cosmetics company had set as its goal.

Mason said the counter has sold out of Instant Smooth foundation, which retails for $38 for a container that lasts three months. When I bought a bottle of milky cleanser from Mason, she demonstrated the wrinkle-disguising properties of Instant Smooth (as opposed to Instant Smooth foundation) on the lines on her hand. The results were impressive, but I had splurged on Office collectibles.

The same woman of a certain age who is buying Clarins Instant Smooth foundation probably also is a sucker for homemade Christmas ornaments. At a kiosk overlooking the stage where Santa Claus was due to arrive, Maureen Nash was doing a brisk business in ornaments that she makes by découpaging parts of vintage cards onto sand dollars.

A former Charleston resident, Nash came back to the Northeast after experiencing one too many hurricanes. She works in an office by day and does housekeeping at a hospital at night.

Her night job gives her access to a steady source of cards sent to the hospital's patients that are left behind. I bought two of her ornaments, which sell for $3 or $5 each, depending on the size. In keeping with the Steamtown theme, I chose ornaments with old trains on them.

At one point on Friday morning, I tried to interview a woman making a purchase, but she said she'd "rather not." She must have noticed that I was a little disappointed because a couple of minutes later she apologized. The truth of the matter, she said, was that she had called in sick and she was afraid her boss might find out she was playing hooky if she talked to a reporter. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you out, hon" she said.

After 25 years in New York City, I'm always surprised at how nice people are in Scranton, especially since the city is known to be a tough place. As actor Jason Sudeikis, who spoofed Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate skit on Saturday Night Live, put it, Scranton is a "hell hole."

But if one chose to hit the mall on Black Friday, this nook of the underworld was the place to do it.