No “Black Friday” Craziness Here!

In a break with this week’s frantic holiday hoopla at many “big box” retail stores, the Read ‘n Post on Coast Village Road will be closed all day Thanksgiving and will open at its regular time on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving.

“If anybody wants to be the first person into our stores on Black Friday by camping out on our doorstep, that’s OK with us,” Read ‘n Post manager Jan Hendrickson said. “But their tent had better be small. We don’t have a lot of space out there.

“We hope everyone will spend Thanksgiving Day with their friends and families, just as it has been celebrated traditionally,” she said, “and when they shop with us on Friday, they won’t need to fight their way through bargain-hunting crowds.

“We have coupons available for a 20 per cent discount on holiday items, but we don’t sell flat-screen TVs or i-phones, and we aren’t hiring any security guards Friday morning.

“As for our loyal customers and employees, we expect to observe Thanksgiving twice — once this Thursday and again later when we move out of our three temporary locations and back into a single large store,” Hendrickson added.

For more than 30 years, Read ‘n Post was located at 1046 Coast Village Road, but lost its lease in April. Renovation work is now underway on a permanent new location nearby at 1026 Coast Village Road, a few steps from the entrance to Vons Grocery.

In the meantime, the business is operating temporarily from three small spaces in the same area — a post office, a store selling holiday items, and the regular Read ‘n Post store, where magazines, cards, newspapers and gifts are available.

The Read ‘n Post store and affiliated post office will open Friday at 9 a.m. The Christmas store will open at 10.