'Black Friday' was busy at Aurora's Southlands Shopping Center, 6155 S. Main St., billed at the state's largest retail destination with 1.7 million square feet of shops. While the decorated streets looked relatively calm toward mid-morning,they got busier andshopkeepers said some of the early-open anchor scores had seen a big flood of shoppers.

Johnna Lamphere, who runs The Cookie Company with Frankie Hoff at 6150 S. Main St., said the Southlands Wal-Mart and other large retailers had customers lined up outside early.

"I got here at quarter to six this morning, and all these places around me, your Wal-Mart, your Sam's, your Best Buy, were jam-packed," she said. "You couldn't even get in and get parked. People are out shopping today, that's for sure," she added.

Lamphere also thought one of the draws was that many clothing retailers were offering special bargains, including two-for-the-price-of-one deals.

Lamphere, whose aunt, Liz Wannamaker originated the Cookie Company in Nebraska 30 years ago, said she and Hoff were tired of being in the hotel business and decided to take the cookie franchise in August of 2007.

She feels that their business, while not recession-proof, doesn't see the downturn in the same way other merchandise retailers do.

"We're not a high-price item," she said, "our cookies sell for a dollar fifty-five. So customers still want to come in and treat themselves."

"That's kind of what saves us - we're just, you know, comfort food," she added.

Still, business is business, whether it's cookies, clothing or car parts.

"We saw a slowdown for about three or four weeks, Lamphere said, "but from here on out, we already have a ton of christmas orders, we have a lot of corporate people calling for gift baskets to give to their clients and employees. And then with the retail end of it, as far as walk-by traffic with the mall picking up with it being Christmas - it'll be busy for us."

Customers are thrilled with the unique shop, she adds, and with the 20 cookie flavors to choose from. All the cookie recipes are from aunt Liz, Lamphere said, save one - a new one she and Hoff conconted titled the Colorado long-haul energy cookie.

A nod to the health-conscious Coloradans?

"It's not that healthy," she said.

Southlands marketing manager Karen Gilkey, who organized many of the events for the post-Thanksgiving weekend, has worked for three other shopping centers and says this job is her favorite. Southlands, she says, has a unique approach.

"We have a real focus on community and throwing special events - we have our community concert series every summer, our 5K race in September, then we go into trick or treating in October, then it's holiday season November and December," Gilkey said.

"And the unique thing about our holiday season is that we don't push and promote Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving, " she added, "so we really respect the Thanksgiving holiday, and that's always been special to me, because it was my birthday (laughs) and I think it's important to give each holiday its day in the sun."

A rare treat for Southlands shoppers is the chance to don skates and hit the ice during their shopping day.

"Our ice skating rink is the only one in the south metro area, and it's only $9 to go skating with your friends and family," said Gilkey.

Anne Deegan of Aurora shopped with Gabrielle Mollerud of Mississippi said her shopping day began at 4 a.m. Exiting a store a bit after noon, Deegan commented, "It's been a wonderful experience - all the people in the store were very, very helpful - and that makes a real difference."

Gilkey feels the economic times are certainly going to makes shoppers more selective.

"People are going to be a little bit more price-conscious, just like they were last year it hasn't changed, and last year the economy was moving right along. And I think this year the hot items will be practical gifts, so I think people are just going to a little more practical, maybe not buy as many splurge items," she said.

"Today's traffic -we opened at 8 o' clock this morning, two hours earlier than our norm, and I think our traffic has been really strong throughout the day and I only see it continuing throughout the day," she reflected.

Gilkey says shoopers also seem to like the strolling outdoors between the shops, music playing in the air, and unique features like the ice pond outside the cinema along with interactive Norman Rockwell displays on street corners and banners - a touch of atmosphere that perhaps embraces a little holiday nostalgia.

The J.C. Penney parking lot was full on Friday, and Gilkey said that was the case for most of the big retailers, with shoppers moving to adjacent lots for overflow parking.

The manager of an adjacent craft store said he'd been at work since 4:30 and that Penney's had been seeing a lot of customers all day.

While actual figures on the first official holiday shopping weekend are awaited,
it seemed many shoppers - at least at Southlands - were getting a head start.