I decided to make a trip to Meadowood Mall this morning. Other than one purchase at Best Buy I had bought all my gifts on line this year, and I wanted to experience mall shopping at least once this season. (It's a love-hate thing—I enjoy the Christmas sights, sounds and smells but hate crowds.) And, for the first time in a few years, I actually needed to buy a few Christmas things, and I never pay full price for them. I can't be an early bird even if I try, so I didn't get there until 9 a.m.

I was shocked to see the parking lot was nearly empty. Had all the people who were there when Macy's opened at 7 a.m. bought all the good stuff and left? Not to worry. I found the Macy's Christmas department, joined a handful of other bargain hunters and chose some 60 percent off cards (bonus: made in the USA!).

There was a line, but it moved quickly. I heard a couple of interesting comments from the woman behind me. One was, "We don't have much for Thanksgiving—it's just a stepchild between Halloween and Christmas." Talk about different priorities. I don't celebrate Halloween, and Thanksgiving is a big event in my family. The other comment I heard from her was, "I could spend all day here. I don't need anything, but look at all this stuff I'm buying." Different priorities again.

Macy's had lots and lots of ornaments on the sale tables. It almost makes you wonder how they could misjudge so badly how many they were going to sell before Christmas. I didn't check the prices, but I'm assuming they still cost several dollars each even at 60 percent off. I wanted to comment loudly, "Does anybody realize these ornaments probably just cost a few cents each to make? Macy's is still making a huge profit on each one!"

I stopped in at the Hallmark store. In years past that was my first stop in my day-after-Christmas bargain binge, and then it was uncomfortably packed with a lot of others like myself. Today I was "greeted" (not) by two employees working on the card racks at the entrance and having a gripe fest about their supervisor ("It just wasn't called for! She could see that we were already doing it."). I think there was only one other customer in the store. No wonder: Hallmark's was giving only 40 percent off on Christmas items. What the?

Hallmark's wasn't the only Grinch; Borders didn't even have their calendars marked down. I didn't see much clothing marked down at all. What I did see everywhere were jewelry markdowns—up to 80 percent. How would you like to be the poor sucker who paid full prize for a big jewelry gift the day before Christmas?

I moved on to Penney's and got there about 9:30 or 9:45 a.m. They had ropes at the cash register near the entrance and a sign that said, "Line forms here." There was not a customer in sight; the clerk was killing time. In fact, most stores seemed to have more employees than customers. And to think I'd dreaded battling the crowds! What's with all the hype on TV about the day-after-Christmas crush? I'll take Cory Farley's observations about the repetitive stories further—a lot of these stories are written off the top of people's heads, or rewritten from previous year's stories, without any actual research or reporting.

Unlike Borders, the calendar store had everything at half off, so I browsed through there. I witnessed a poignant scene between a husband and wife. She pounced on a calendar featuring North American fish and waved it excitedly at him. He seemed to recoil and then said with relief, "I already have that." She said triumphantly, "Not for 2008!" He looked at it briefly and put it back on the shelf. Good for him. I understand how hard it is to buy for men, though.

I spent longer on my shopping trip than I should have because I go to the mall so seldom any more that I have trouble finding things. How long has there been a casino there? I found one (relatively new, I think) business that had people lined up to buy its products: Starbucks. I keep being amazed that there are enough people willing to pay their prices to keep them not just thriving but expanding. I ended my shopping trip with a quick trip through the Bombay store, which is going out of business. I'm sure I will find a whole new landscape the next time I visit Meadowood. It could be another year.

As I left at about 10:30, the mall seemed to filling with people and there were a few more cars in the parking lot (still a lot more empty spaces than cars). It'll be interesting to see how the local media report it tonight.

P.S. Raley's had their "afterChristmas" clearance in the days before Christmas, and I got some great buys there Monday.