By James Rincon

Pflag Reporter

Like longsuffering paternal Emperor penguins, parsimonious holiday shoppers assume a tight formation on Black Friday to wait huddled in the cold dark hours of the night and early morning.

They are fortified by a Thanksgiving dinner that likely provides a caloric energy unequaled by any other meal they consumed that year.

The penguins weather the elements so their species can avoid extinction for another generation; the shoppers – to save $700 on a 46-inch high-definition LCD TV.

“The people that were first in line got here at midnight Wednesday. So they were in line for 29 hours,” said Black Friday door buster Mike Martinez who got in line at the Pflugerville Best Buy nearly seven hours before it opened last Friday. “We’ve never done it before – it’s our first time – so we wanted to see what it was all about.”

The Best Buy, located in Pflugerville’s Stone Hill Town Center opened its doors at 5 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving to a line or more than 100 shoppers wrapped around the side or its building.

Round Rock residents Jim and Kaylie Tully took their place in line at 2 a.m. in hopes to secure themselves serious savings on some of the priciest items on their Christmas lists.

“When we got here [the line] was already around the corner,” Jim Tully said. “We got everything that we wanted to get pretty much.”

Door buster Jhene Eke, who got in line at 10:50 p.m. Thanksgiving night was not as lucky.

“It’s first come first serve. If it was out it was out,” Eke said. “I didn’t get the laptop that I wanted but I got my second choice.”

Built less than a year ago, The Stone Hill Town Center has attracted retail giants such as Super Target, Home Depot and Dick’s Sporting Goods. For time-pressed bargain hunters like Tim Trandai the local retail growth means shorter trips.

“I come very often,” Trandai said. “It’s a very good location. I don’t have to drive farther to the Domain or some other location, so I like it very much.”

For the city, increased vendors means a boost in sales-tax revenue.

“Pflugerville has been positioned for the last three years to see increased sales tax revenue growth. Not realizing the economic tailspin that the country was going to experience Pflugerville continues to show marked improvements,” Mayor pro-tem Victor Gonzales said in an e-mail. “Pflugerville has now become an accessible retail destination as a result of the toll ways.  Pflugerville is at the right place at the right time when it comes to anticipated retail revenue.”

Despite the positive trend in tax revenue from retailers, Pflugerville is far from a being a sale-seeker’s hot spot, said city council member Darelle White, who is also a Pflugerville Community Development Corporation board member. White said the city is not yet positioned to rely on sales tax revenue for vital projects like infrastructure.

“Look at the number of retail stores in Pflugerville per capita compared to Austin and Round Rock. We’re not anywhere near the penetration yet. So from our standpoint a single period like the holiday season is no going to make a dramatic difference,” White said. “We recognize the contribution that sales tax revenues will have to our budget, but we always look at it in a very conservative way because we do not want to get into a situation where we are anticipating dollars in the future, because of sales tax, that we cannot rely on.

“We do not want to over commit out city resources by saying we’re going to build this or do that or pay these salaries unless we know that we have those dollars in place in our budget. We want to be as fiscally responsible as we can be with our limited recourse, and that’s the way we would manage our own personal pocketbooks for our families because that’s what Pflugerville is.”

Although Pflugerville may not be the most popular retail destination in Central Texas, that didn’t stop hoards of shoppers from hunkering down like Emperor penguins outside some of the city’s newest store to try to hatch the holiday’s hottest deals.