By Wayne Laepple
HUMMELS WHARF — Paul Nye stood in the center of the concourse at the Susquehanna Valley mall Saturday afternoon, surround by bags emblazoned with the names of several mall stores. He gazed at people passing by, some carrying bags and moving purposefully, others strolling and chatting.
“I came because my fiancee wanted to come,” said the Shamokin man said. “She wanted to exchange some things and pick up some things.”
Nye said he and his intended, Sandy Tocyloski, and her son, Ryan, had stood in line for half an hour in one store, waiting to make an exchange.
Just then, Tocyloski and her son walked up, carrying still more bags.
“I’ve never done this before,” she said. “And I won’t do it again.”
She walked into another mall store and walked right out again when they saw how many people were waiting in the returns and exchanges line.
They weren’t the only ones returning and exchanging things the day after Christmas, either. The parking lot was well-filled as people returned items that didn’t fit or weren’t the right color or weren’t what they wanted.
Terry Scheneck, manager of Boscov’s Department Store, said the courtesy desk at the store had been busy all day.
“It’s normal,” said Scheneck, who has managed the store for 30 years. “If people aren’t happy with their item, they should be able to exchange it. We want them to have a good experience here.”
Scheneck said as many people exchange items that don’t fit well or don’t work properly as those who return an gift that they don’t want for something else.
“In fact, with what we call Flip-6, we encourage people to exchange things for something they really want,” he continued.
On Saturday, about 100 associates were working, about as many as were working on the busiest days before Christmas.
“We’ll start to reduce the number of associates tomorrow,” he said.
Throughout the store, piles of returned goods crowded the areas behind counters and around registers. Scheneck said associates would move the items to a central location where they would be checked and then placed back in stock.
At J.C. Penney at the other end of the mall, Joanne Snyder of Dornsife was exchanging a pair of jeans she had gotten for her son. The jeans were too small, she laughed, noting that her son had gone to college and apparently had gained some weight.
“It’s so nice here,” she said as she waited for the cashier to complete the transaction. “Some places are really crazy today.”
“I usually stay away from Black Friday and Dec. 26,” she said. “This is my first time ever doing this.”
