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SHOPPERS SNARL ROADS, STORES AT GROVE CITY OUTLETS
Emphasize the madness if you talk about the first "Midnight Madness" sale at Prime Outlets at Grove City. At the peak of the shopping frenzy that got under way at 12:01 a.m. yesterday, General Manager Carmen DeRose estimated 25,000 people had converged on the 140-store complex in Mercer County to do their shopping early. By the looks of things, a similar number were stuck on the highways trying to get there. Exit 113 on Interstate 79 was at capacity, with state police estimating that at one point, traffic was backed up 10 miles in the northbound direction and 6 miles in the southbound direction. Congestion started around 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and built during the night all the way back to nearby Interstate 80. "It's crazy around here," said Phil Hossman, a desk clerk who started at midnight at the Super 8 Motel, a half-mile from Prime Outlets. "I heard some people say they took three hours to get through" the traffic and get parked in the 3,000-space lot. Mr. Hossman traveled local roads rarely used by visitors to get to the motel, whose 60 rooms were sold out well in advance of Midnight Madness, some by guests staying for two nights to shop. "They didn't sleep a wink because they were at the stores," he said. Some were coming back yesterday at noon for a cat-nap before heading back again. Many Super 8 guests are Canadians who travel across the border to Prime Outlets -- often on chartered bus shopping tours -- for better prices, to beat taxes and take advantage of a favorable exchange rate that lets them buy more with the Canadian dollars than they have in years. The waits didn't end for shoppers once they made their way to the Grove City complex. The line outside the Coach store, which specializes in leather handbags, pocketbooks, purses and the like, "was so long, it took some people six hours to get in," Mr. DeRose said. He expects the demand to continue, including up to 50 buses a day that bring shoppers during the holidays. Because of the growing popularity of Prime Outlets and some other new shopping attractions in proximity, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is spending about $18 million to extend and widen the I-79 interchange ramps, widen the Route 208 overpass leading to the outlets to six lanes, add traffic signals and widen Route 208 to Butler Pike. The project is scheduled to be finished by early fall next year -- in time for Midnight Madness 2007. |
