Shoppers looking for bargains

Before Angela and her two children headed into Target in College Point, she already knew her shopping habits would be different.
“I look for more things on sale,” Angela said. “I used to go in a store, pick up an item and not look at the price — now I take a second look.”
It’s not just taking a second look at the prices, it’s shopping less in general that Angela is doing now.
“I have what I have, and I basically buy what the kids need, nothing more,” she said.
Angela is not alone. The difficult weeks on Wall Street coupled with the recent poor economic figures overall have caused many shoppers in Queens and throughout the rest of the country to cut back on some spending and search for some deals at discount and wholesale stores.
“We just finished Columbus Day,” said Howard Davidowitz, Chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national firm that provides consulting and investment banking services to the retail industry. “The malls were empty. Those people who were shopping were not carrying bags. It was terrible.”
Davidowitz said that home furnishing and department stores that anchor malls throughout the country are being hit the hardest right now, mentioning that a number of national stores were folding altogether while others were decreasing the number of locations they have throughout the country.
Bipin Panjwani, 53, who owns a 99-cent variety store in Queens, said the economic stress hasn’t affected his small business too much because of the nature of his prices and his customers’ purchasing habits. However, it is affecting his personal shopping habits.
“[Each] time you go to buy something, prices are always up,” Panjwani said after stocking up on items from BJ’s Wholesale Club in College Point.
Many consumers are heading to stores like BJ’s Costco, Family Dollar and Walmart in the hopes of buying food and other items in bulk to save some money, according to Davidowitz.
“If you are selling cheap things that the consumer has to buy, you are doing alright right now,” Davidowitz said.
Omar, 31, a lifelong Queens resident who works as a door attendant and is married with two kids, believes that retirees are currently bearing the brunt of the recent turmoil on Wall Street and the downturn in the economy, but he’s still concerned.
“It hasn’t affected me yet, but it will,” he said.
Davidowitz would likely agree.
“The consumer is falling behind on their auto loans, credit card bills and student loans,” Davidowitz said. “The consumer is underwater, underground and is not going to spend for Christmas, and we are going to have a terrible holiday season.”
Meanwhile, the Queens Chamber of Commerce is continuing to push a campaign they launched last month called “Keep it in Queens,” which urges companies to do business in and with other Queens groups.
“ ‘Keep it in Queens’ is even more important in this economy though because small businesses need help, and we want to do anything that we can as a Chamber to assist them,” said Chamber Executive Vice President Jack Friedman.