Dillard’s wins the sign wars, but not the crowd wars
At least here at my South County outpost, Dillard’s seems to be offering the most discounts with plenty of 70 percent off signs on some merchandise that’s already discounted and 50 percent off lots of merchandise that’s already 40 percent off, but Macy’s which is big on 40 percent offs and buy-one-get-ones has more traffic.
And JCPenney which seems to have won by the hype of opening at 4 a.m. Is the biggest winner of all, even though most of the signs are 50 percent offs, some markdowns are as high as 60.
But sale signs look to be in a higher quantity that’s feeding the frenzy. The store is winning the unofficial bag wars by a margin of about two to one against the other two.
At Dillard’s the sales clerks are actually wandering around chatting with people. At Macy’s the sales people are scurrying but friendly and at JCPenney, they have sunken eyes and a vacant stare. Kidding, but they look tired and a little exasperated, like the baristas at the Starbucks and pretzel makers at Auntie Ann’s.
A wayward soul from Las Vegas, Nevada, who now calls St. Louis home and believes that fashion is relative and capricious, but style is always in favor. 
At 4 am at Kohl’s in Arnold, the parking lot was full. at 4:20, the lines were from the cashiers to the back of the store both ways around. Instead of shopping, my daughter and I jumped in the car and headed for Macy’s at West County. Yes, Penney’s was open, but crowds were sparse. The only other store that was open was Macy’s (we made it at 5:10). I couldn’t believe it-there was hardly anyone around and I saw a lot of people like me who were looking, but couldn’t find anything to buy even with the $10 off $25 purchase. This year I’ve found quality and quantity extremely limited. I’ve had great difficulty finding those thick cashmere socks that I need to replace. And red leather gloves-forget it! only black and brown can be found. We’re definitely in a recession!
The Marion, IL Dillard’s had a better sale last week. This morning, items that had been 70% per cent off was not 50% off and an additional 50%. This amounts to mere cents on the dollar.
I was disappointed and left without purchasing anything.
OK………I don’t understand.
Why are the prices lower at 5am compared to 3pm?