Mad dash for a discount

Not the Schmitts, though. The family, from Winchester, Mass., had arrived at 5 the night before and set up camp - with no regrets.

"We got a dining room table and chairs!" said Christine Schmitt.

For some, Memorial Day weekend is spent beachside, or perhaps by the lake or atop a mountain. But for a certain set, a must-do activity for the kickstart of the summer is a good sale. And by most measures, a granddaddy of Memorial Day weekend sales in New England is the tent sale at the Vermont furniture-maker Pompanoosuc Mills.

The event is not for the faint of heart. To land an oak dresser or a walnut table takes cunning, speed, and split-second thinking. When an emcee gives the word and flaps are pushed back on open-air tents at 10 a.m., a tidal wave of humanity pulses forward, drawn as if by powerful magnets. Pause, even for a second, and your dream armoire will be gone, tapped by another seeker of slashed prices on hardwood furniture, price reductions that often run into the thousands of dollars.

There are inevitable comparisons to the "Running of the Brides," the semi-annual sale at Filene's Basement where brides-to-be make a dash for discount wedding gowns. Indeed, Filene's Basement officials have conferred with Pompanoosuc officials on crowd control.

Here in Vermont, folks like to think of the tent sale, in a sprawling field ringed by green hills, as civilized competition - sport for devotees of hand-crafted furniture.

"There is an adrenaline rush at the start when you're like: 'Will I get what I want?' " said Sara Carpenter of Wakefield, Mass., who snagged a tall dresser, her 5-week-old baby pocketed in a Bjorn on her front. "But it's laid back. I felt like I was at one of my old Phish shows, hanging out in the parking lot."

"It's all very cordial, very Vermonty," said Yasmine Ziesler, of Huntington, Vt.

Officials say there are occasional ugly incidents, but rarely, and they are quickly smoothed over. One time, two men got into an argument over barstools. The more aggressive customer went home with the barstools while the other licked his wounds, though not for long. Store officials made him a new set for the same price.

"We want people to have fun, not be wounded," said Rob Chapin, Pompanoosuc Mills' vice president and director of marketing.

For that reason, company officials say, they serve breakfast, play music, and encourage folks to mingle and make friends.

Which is not to say the event doesn't have the frisson and tension of a 100-yard dash.

As the sun was rising Saturday, couples with children and dogs marched determinedly across a field, coffee mugs and lawn chairs in hand, to take places in line for tickets that store officials began handing out at 6 a.m.

The early birds repaired to the breakfast tent. By 9:55 a.m., 438 people held tickets and were standing in snaking lines outside yellow-and-white tents, eyes focused ahead, feet positioned as if on start blocks.

When the tents opened at 10 a.m., silence descended. Five minutes later, hundreds of hands were positioned on furniture, the signal for claiming items. By day's end, 70 percent of the furniture - some 600 pieces - was gone.

This year's tent sale was the 15th for the company that was founded in 1973 by Dwight O. Sargent, a Dartmouth business school graduate with a knack for carpentry. The company has grown to include stores in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Its headquarters remain in Vermont.

For many, the tent sale has come to be an annual tradition.

Jeanne and Mike Prince, who live in nearby Lyme, N.H., have been attending for 15 years. They have furnished two houses with the company's furniture. The houses are nearly maxed out on space, but this year, they couldn't pass up a loveseat and a blanket chest.

"Originally, there was the rush of a horse race, but after a time, the rush is gone and it's just fun," said Mike Prince, chief technology officer of Burlington Coat Factory.

The Schmitts of Winchester have attended the sale at least seven times, missing one year when their first child was a newborn. They said the key to success was strategy.

"You have to have a clear idea of what you want, and you have to be willing to walk away if you don't find it," said Andrew Schmitt, an engineer.

Speedy thinking is the clincher. "One who hesitates does not get a dining room table," quipped Christine Schmitt.

This was the first year that the Schmitts camped out for the sale, pitching a tent on the Pompanoosuc Mills grounds and passing the twilight hours reading stories and playing games with their children. They arose shortly after sunrise to claim their spot in line - as numbers 1 and 2.

"Every year we see some of the same people and they are rooting for us and asking - 'Did you get your table?' " said Christine Schmitt.

"We search for a reason to come back," said Andrew Schmitt. "We are totally hooked."