Section A • Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, November 19, 1997
Downtown shops ready for holidays
By Ann Premier
apremer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
Downtown merchants have been preparing for the holiday season for the past couple of months and will be ready for Christmas shopper the day after Thanksgiving.
Joe Flannery, president of Weavers, 901 Massachusetts St., said that his store started preparing for the holidays in October.
"We start right after our anniversary sale ends." Flannery said. "We've been getting ready for the Christmas season since then."
Flannery said that the store had hired an additional 25 employees to work during the holiday season, which starts the day after Thanksgiving and ends after Christmas.
While the day after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the shopping season and the busiest day for many retailers, it is not the busiest day for Weavers. Flannery said
"The busiest weekend of the year is the last weekend before Christmas," he said.
Other downtown merchants agree with Flannery, Gunda Hiebert, co-owner of the Bay Leaf, 725 Massachusetts St., said that, in general, larger stores had their busiest days the weekend after Thanksgiving but that smaller stores were busier closer to Christmas. Hiebert attributed the larger stores' success the day after Thanksgiving to sale merchandise.
"I don't think we have a busiest day,"
Hiebert said. "Sales for us pick up a lot more as we get into December."
Greg Gunther, owner of The Palace, Eighth and Massachusetts streets, said that the store's busiest shopping day was the last Saturday before Christmas.
"The day after Thanksgiving is a busy day. We have a lot of traffic, but it's not as significant." Gunther said.
Hiebert said that she had doubled the number of employees for the holiday season and would extend the store's hours.
She said that planning for shopper was difficult. After every holiday season, there is some merchandise that the store have too much of and other merchandise that the store do not have enough of, she said.
"It's one of those things that is a traditional retailer's nightmare," Hiebert said. "There is absolutely no way to get around that."
Hiebert said that a sure seller in her store was a ready-made fruit cake by the former Drakes Bakery of Lawrence.
"They just sell like crazy for us," Hiebert said. "It's not the traditional fruit cake that gets passed on. People actually eat it."
Merchants agreed that shopping early in the season and early in the day would help shoppers avoid frenzied Christmas crowds.
"I think shopping earlier you always have the best selection," Flannery said.
He said that prices generally would not be cheaper closer to Christmas time but that selection would be slimmer.
Massachusetts Street stores prepare early for the holiday season. Signs for fall sales and holiday decorations are being displayed in store windows. Jennifer Winsky, Saffees manager, decorates her window in
anticipation of holiday shoppers. Merchants suggests shopping early in the season and early in the day to avoid crowds. Photo by Holly Groshong/KANSAN.
CANU dig it?
The Free State Jazz Quartet performs during the CANU benefit concert at The Bottleneck. The band was one of three playing Monday at the concert benefiting Women's
Transitional Care Services. Admission was three canned goods or $3. The event was sponsored by KJHK and Sigma Alpha Episod fraternity. Photo by Tara Bradley/KANSAN
Documentary teaches about Tibetan issues
By Corrie Moore
cmoore@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
KU students and Lawrence residents halfway filled Woodruff Auditorium last night for the Tibetan Freedom Concert movie.
Student Union Activities, Network Event Theater and a new campus organization, Students for a Free Tibet, sponsored the free event, which attracted more than 227 people.
The documentary showed live footage from the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996, as well as informative pieces on the situation in Tibet. The concert was organized by the Milarepa Fund, a group based in San Francisco that advocates freeing Tibet.
The beginning of the movie gave historical background of the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1950. Since then, more than 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed, 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed and thousands of Tibetans have been imprisoned.
In between live footage of the concert, native Tibetans told stories of imprisonment that included torture, starvation and rape.
One native Tibetan who was interviewed in the documentary said, "I remember just hating what China did to my country and my people."
There is no freedom of religion in Tibet. The documentary explained the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, which is the central focus of the Tibetan culture.
Buddhism is based on love and compassion. But since the Chinese takeover, Tibetans have been the subject of violence and abuse, the documentary pointed out.
Erik Goodman, Beavercreek, Ohio, sophomore and member of Students for a Free Tibet, gave a 15-minute speech before the movie. He talked about Chinese business issues. He said that the U.S. government was willing to overlook human rights issues while making money from Chinese products.
In the documentary, audience members, band members and staff at the concert were interviewed.
Many of the young people at the concert were unaware of human-rights issues in Tibet and were there just for the music.
"I thought it was good because it was informative for people that went for the music."
Eric Goodman Ohio sophomore
Jenny Sorinsky, Northbrook, Ill., freshman, said she came to last night's show to hear the music and learn more about the issues in Tibet.
"I thought it was good because it was informative for people that went for the music," she said.
Goodman said he hoped the message students received was that it was wrong for the United States government to allow trade with China because of China's disregard for human rights.
Katie Malloy, Deerfield, Ill., freshman, said she was not aware of any problems in Tibet before she watched the movie, which helped inform her more about the issues.
"I learned that a lot of the country and the world is not aware of what's going on," she said.
Goodman said Students For a Free Tibet was accepting donations to be sent to the Milarepa Fund. Some of the money will be sent back to Students for a Free Tibet in Lawrence to help support the organization.
Goodman said that Students for a Free Tibet aimed to recruit members from the film and to make students aware of the issues in Tibet.
"I had no idea how many people would show up," he said. "I'm especially pleased to have people in the Lawrence community here."
Brian Foster, Atlantic City, N.J., graduate student, attended the movie and said he learned things he did not know before.
"Judging by the number of people that's here, I'm hoping it's something more people get involved with," he said.
In the first 20 minutes of the movie, there were some technical difficulties with the sound.
went wrong and, before they could contact Network Event Theater, the sound came back on.
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