Thursday, November 22, 2012
Hours and parking, seeing Santa, supporting Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army Angel tree and more to get you through Black Friday.
The Manassas Mall opens at midnight for shoppers who want to get an early jump on Black Friday shopping. It will be open until 11 p.m. Friday. The mall is open Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Parking at Manassas Mall An interactive map of the mall is available here so you can target your parking lot and plan your route in the mall to get your shopping done efficiently. On Black Friday, most roads will be busier than usual, but if you check the Patch commuting tab, you can stay up to date on which roads are the most clogged, and choose an alternate route to the mall parking lot. The parking lot has more than 4,500 spaces, but you may want to carpool with friends or family who also want to go shopping. If you don't want to deal with the …
Monday, November 19, 2012
Northern Virginia's economy is relatively strong, but the looming threat of sequestration has some shoppers nervous.
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, holiday parties—it's an expensive time of year. According to the National Retail Federation's national holiday consumer spending survey (conducted by BIGinsight), the average holiday shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts, décor, holiday cards, entertaining and other things this season. That's a minor increase from $740.57 — the amount shoppers spent last year. Two-thirds of respondents to a recent poll by the NPD Group said they “plan to spend about the same” as last year, while 10 percent planned to “spend more.” Unlike other areas of the country, the fiscal cliff and sequestration are really on the minds of thousands of federal employees and government contractors. In addition, western Prince William…
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Since when is Christmas celebrated in October?
A few weeks ago, my 4-year-old daughter and I were shopping at a local department store when we came across a section that had already been decorated for Christmas. “Mommy, why are there Christmas trees already?” my daughter asked me. She stole the words right out of my mouth. We were still three weeks away from Halloween and yet there were already Christmas ornaments on the walls and holiday music playing in the background. Discounted Halloween items were tossed into the middle of the aisle and I’m not even sure that I saw anything related to Thanksgiving. I shook my head and told her that the store was being silly and that we’d look at Christmas decorations after we had our turkey. There is no doubt that this is my favorite time of …
