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Holiday shopping sees limited success locally, across nation Electronics top Sumter’s list on Black Friday BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com Customers in Sumter took advantage of annual Black Friday deals offered at various stores in the area. Black Friday, considered the start of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., has been a major shopping event for U.S. businesses since at least the 1930s. Many major retailers opened in the early hours of Friday morning and some even on Thanksgiving Day, offering a wide range of promotional sales. Sumter’s Walmart Supercenter, on Broad Street, saw about 75 percent of its daily transactions come after Black Friday sales began at 6 p.m. PHOTOS BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY / THE SUMTER ITEM Thursday. Kaeshawna Singletary, left, electronics sales associate at Sumter Walmart Supercenter, rings up items for Jacob Fenner, back right, and his father, Joe Quinlaw, Walmart SuJeff Fenner, of Sumter on Friday. The store offered discounts on various items from Thanksgiving evening through Black Friday evening. percenter manager, said the store will continue to offer discounts on certain items through the weekend, while supplies last. He said in recent years, the store has seen as many customers on Black Friday as it does on Thanksgiving Day. “We see a large number of lots; calm, orderly lines; and BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO people on Thanksgiving evemodest traffic. Black Friday, AP Retail Writer ning, but there is still a large which traditionally is the biggroup of people who spends gest shopping day of the year, NEW YORK — The annual the holiday at home, waiting almost looked like a normal ritual of Black Friday, as we until Friday to do their shopshopping day. And not every know it, is over. ping,” he said. shopper was happy about that. Gone are the throngs of The store had discounts on In Denver, for instance, frenzied shoppers camping everything from electronics Susan Montoya had nearly an out for days ahead of the big and toys to automotive parts, entire Kmart to herself Friday sales bonanza on the day after crafts and even snacks. morning. Montoya half-heartThanksgiving. And forget the Quinlaw said there has been edly flipped through a rack of Dennis Wise and his daughter, Angel Wise, of Sumter, shop at JCPenney fisticuffs for flat-screen TVs. at Sumter Mall on Friday. They were looking for gifts for their family and Instead, stores across the country had sparse parking SEE SHOPPING, PAGE A8 enjoying finding bargains. SEE BLACK FRIDAY, PAGE A11
Super Bowl of shopping is more like a scrimmage
‘It felt like I was given a death sentence’ Double-lung transplant needed to help Manning woman breathe BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com Manning resident Melissa Eaddy Ridgeway cannot live without an oxygen tank.
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Her lung function capacity is at 50 percent, and she is in need of a double-lung transplant. In April 2014, Ridgeway, 56, was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, a group of lung diseases affecting the
tissue and space around the air sacs of the lungs. On Nov. 23, 2014, after several hospital stays, her lung capacity had been reduced to 20 percent. Doctors told her she only had a few months to live, to contact hospice and to prepare her family for the worst. “It felt like I was given a death sentence,” Ridgeway said. Interstitial lung disease describes a large group of disorders characterized by progressive scarring of the lung
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tissue, between the air sacs. The scarring associated with the disease may cause progressive lung stiffness, eventually affecting a person’s ability to breathe and get enough oxygen into his or her bloodstream, according to the Mayo Clinic website. After running a series of tests, doctors could not determine the cause of Ridgeway’s condition, she said. She
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Partly sunny and warm but overcast today. Shower possible tonight and mild. HIGH 73, LOW 56
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