NATION/WORLD
Saturday, November 26, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Stores woo savvy Black Friday shoppers
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
A woman waits for the start of an anti-violence against
women protest in Mexico City on Friday.
Wave of Mexico violence reveals
hidden graves, severed heads
ACAPULCO,
Mexico
(AP) — Soldiers and police
fanned out Friday across the
southern Mexican state of
Guerrero, chasing a wounded
gang leader and trying to quell
a wave of violence that included
the discovery of hidden graves
holding dozens of bodies and a
camp where gunmen stored the
severed heads of nine rivals in a
cooler.
The clashes between drug
gangs were complicated by the
fact that townspeople fed up
with the violence had formed
“community police” vigilante
squads in many places. The
squads often prevent police and
soldiers from moving freely and
sometimes act on behalf of the
gangs.
Gov.
Hector
Astudillo
announced that federal authori-
ties would return to patrol areas
where dozens of often-dismem-
bered bodies have been dumped
on roadsides in recent weeks.
The state has been riven, not
just by the killings, but by the
kidnapping of about a dozen
people in the town of Ajuchitlan.
Residents there announced they
would create a vigilante force to
look for the kidnap victims, an
idea that threatened to create yet
another armed group.
The Ajuchitlan residents
were apparently kidnapped last
week by a fugitive gang leader
known as “El Tequilero,” who
was believed to be wounded
and hiding out with his kidnap
victims in the mountains.
The state attorney general
headed up a massive manhunt
using helicopters and ground
troops to look for him. But Astu-
dillo warned that the vigilantes
would have to withdraw to allow
police and soldiers to do their
jobs.
“The army, the state police,
they can’t be there with armed
groups,”
Astudillo
said.
“Withdraw, and we will enter
immediately. But for the two to
be there at the same time, that is
not possible.”
The governor also announced
the creation of mixed army-po-
lice patrols in parts of the state
torn apart by cartel turf battles.
One such area is Zitlala, where a
drug gang had set up a rural camp
where it held kidnap victims and
disposed of bodies.
When one of the joint mili-
tary-police patrols happened
upon the camp earlier this week,
it found a kidnapped man and
what appeared to be clandestine
burial pits. Investigators initially
reported finding a dozen bodies.
After days of digging, they
discovered 32 bodies in 17 pits.
The camp is near the area
where nine decapitated bodies
were found dumped last week.
The nine heads found in coolers
at the camp may belong to those
bodies, investigators said. The
bodies and heads were taken to
forensic labs.
The area has been the scene
of turf battles between two
rival drug gangs — the Rojos
and the Ardillos — who engage
in extortion, kidnappings and
killings. That rivalry has resulted
in hundreds of deaths and disap-
pearances in recent years.
In recent weeks the violence
has spread to other areas, appar-
ently a turf battle between two or
three other gangs.
BRIEFLY
Death toll in Iraq
bombing claimed
by IS rises to 73
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) —
The death toll from a car
bombing south of Baghdad
claimed by the Islamic State
group rose to 73 on Friday,
including about 40 Iranian
pilgrims, as Iraqi forces
fought house to house to
dislodge the extremist group
from the northern city of
Mosul in a five-week-old
campaign slowed down
by stiff IS resistance and
fears of massive civilian
casualties.
Iraqi police and hospital
officials said 65 other
people were wounded in
the Thursday night attack
at a gas station on a major
highway near the city of
Hilla, about 95 kilometers
(60 miles) south of the Iraqi
capital.
It was the deadliest IS
attack in Iraq since July,
when a car bomb killed
about 300 in a commercial
district in Baghdad.
IS claimed the attack in a
brief statement on its Aamaq
media arm, saying it was a
suicide truck bomb. Earlier,
Iraqi officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity
because they were not
authorized to talk to the
media, had put the death toll
at 56.
In Mosul, where an Iraqi
government campaign to
retake the city began last
month, fighting continued
in the eastern sector on
Friday, with Iraqi special
forces seizing another
neighborhood, Masaref,
and advancing in the
densely populated Zohour
district, according to Brig.
Gen. Haider Fadhil. The
offensive to capture Zohour
began earlier this week, but
troops are facing spirited IS
resistance, he added.
Sister ecstatic over
return of missing
California woman
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — The older sister of a
Northern California mother
who was missing for three
weeks said Friday the return
of her sibling made for the
best Thanksgiving ever.
The comments by
Sheila Koester came as
authorities searched for two
armed women they believe
abducted 34-year-old Sherri
Papini on Nov. 2 then
released her alongside an
interstate early Thursday.
Papini was found near
Interstate 5 about 150 miles
south of the site where she
disappeared while jogging
near Redding.
Authorities have released
few details about what
happened to her.
Koester said she does not
know what happened during
the three weeks her sister
was gone or the details of the
police investigation.
She said she reunited
with Papini and is giving
her space and time with her
husband to heal.
Papini was found
bound by restraints after
she flagged down a driver,
Bosenko said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Even
people who said they’d already done
their shopping online came out for
Black Friday to spend time with
family members or just for the fun
of looking.
But it’s those very shoppers
retailers are trying to keep as loyal
customers, working to improve their
own online sites and letting people
pick up purchases in the store as the
retailers try to fend off the Amazon
juggernaut. Even as retailers kick
off the shopping season earlier each
year, the day after Thanksgiving is
still one of the busiest sales days
of the year. It’s also becoming an
American export to other countries.
Shoppers were on the hunt for
deals and were at the stores for
entertainment Friday. Store execu-
tives say they see customers doing
more research online before they go
shop. That can mean more browsers
turn into buyers, but also that they
are visiting fewer stores in person.
“If I’ve seen it on the internet
and I find a better deal than I saw on
the internet, I’ll buy it,” said Dianna
Ramirez, who was looking for a
television at the Crossgates Mall in
suburban Albany, New York.
Shamika Malloy of Albany was
also there shopping for her four
teenage children. Her must-have
item a laptop for a daughter in
college. Malloy said she hadn’t yet
shopped online but usually does so.
“It’s better than coming in the
store. If you do it online, you save
and you can get it delivered right to
the house for free. Can’t beat that.”
But she said she wouldn’t shop at as
many places as last year. “Whoev-
er’s got the best deals, that’s where
I go.”
This weekend is crucial to set the
tone for the holiday season. Around
137 million people plan to or are
considering doing their shopping
during the Thanksgiving weekend,
according to a survey conducted for
the National Retail Federation trade
group. That includes online and
store shopping.
The Black Friday mentality
and marketing approach has even
crossed the Atlantic and is shaping
shopping habits in much of Britain.
Many big box stores opened early
Friday morning while others
focused on cutting online prices or
combining the two. Some Swiss
stores that have started offering
American-style “Black Friday”
discounts online have seen their sites
freeze, slow down or crash under a
surge in traffic.
With the competition for
customers so intense, many stores
were open Thursday evening in what
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Hunter Harvey, 2, helps his dad, C.J., wheel a big screen TV at Target
on Black Friday in Wilmington, Mass.
they hope will be a new holiday
tradition. Retailers have also been
spreading deals out more throughout
the week which may have diluted
the shopping.
“It was a really good start. But
I have never seen Black Friday
morning so calm,” said Marshal
Cohen, chief industry analyst at
NPD Group, a market research firm,
who visited malls on Long Island on
Friday. He believes the weekend’s
sales will likely rise from last year
because shoppers did lots of buying,
including pricey flat-screen TVs.
The National Retail Federation,
the nation’s largest retail trade
group, expects holiday sales to rise
3.6 percent to $655.8 billion for
November and December, better
than the 3 percent growth seen for
those months last year. That excludes
car sales, gas and restaurant receipts,
but includes online spending and
other non-store sales such as catalog
spending. Online sales are expected
to be up 7 percent to 10 percent to
as much as $117 billion, compared
to a 9 percent growth rate last year.
That means that online sales could
account for 18 percent of overall
holiday sales.
While many major retailers
reported strong online sales for
Thursday and Friday, they acknowl-
edge they also are working harder to
lure shoppers to stores.
Macy’s has been offering exclu-
sive deals for its app users. Target
will be pushing its Cyber Monday
deals on Sunday and spreading them
to the stores as well as online, and
CEO Brian Cornell thinks those days
could be the busiest of the year. Saks
Fifth Avenue has started offering
concierge help on its website.
J. C. Penney, a laggard in the
online arena, is quickly catching
up under CEO Marvin Ellison.
After Penney resumed selling major
appliances this year in time for the
holidays, Ellison, a former executive
at Home Depot, says shoppers come
into the stores very informed about
the products. He also said a focus on
toys for the holidays has also helped
fuel traffic in stores and online.
Penney also started its Black
Friday online sales on Wednesday
instead of Thursday to compete
better with online-only companies.
Kohl’s, too, has also been heavily
investing in sprucing up its shopping
app and pulling forward some
online deals. Chief Executive Kevin
Mansell says online sales broke
records for Thanksgiving, but store
visits showed solid growth as well.
And Toys R Us, which saw strong
traffic at stores and online, will be
doing more online flash sales.
Both kinds of customers were at
the Mall of America in Minnesota —
which was closed on Thanksgiving
this year — on Friday morning.
Jennifer Cleveland was hoping to
tackle a shopping list of gifts for
in-laws and some winter gear. It’s
her second Black Friday shopping
trip, and she came back to score
some big deals.
“I came last year and discovered
sales are better than online,” she
said.
But Julie Singewald, 44, said
she was there merely as the vehicle
— “and sometimes the credit
card” — as her daughters shopped.
Singewald is doing more of her own
shopping online.
“I’m a point-and-click person,”
she said. “If it were up to me, I
would be in my pajamas and on my
computer at home.”