Local businesses are preparing for a big football weekend when Ohio State comes to town to face off against the undefeated Nittany Lions.

Many local clothing retailers are expecting brisk business and increased sales of white shirts due to the whiteout declared for the 7:45 p.m. game.

Guido D'Elia, Penn State's football communications and branding director, said whiteouts are declared after consulting what he terms an "ad hoc group of kids."

Some of the factors that go into deciding a whiteout include the importance of the game and the weather, he said.

D'Elia said he was optimistic that this year's whiteout would be a success since most fans were familiar with the concept of a whiteout from the two that occurred last year.

D'Elia said that word has been
spread about this year's whiteout mainly through advertisements and marketing.

Norm Brown, manager of the Student Book Store, 330 E. College Ave., said the store will be ready for the whiteout.

"Tomorrow we are going to put every white thing we own in the window," he said.

Brown added that he expects a "hell of a weekend" -- the store was already sold out of white jerseys yesterday. More white shirts have been ordered to accommodate the demand, he said.

Sandy Sims of The Family Clothesline, 352 E. College Ave., mentioned that the store has 24 different prints of adult shirts on sale.

She also said the store ordered extra white T-shirts, crewnecks and hooded sweatshirts in anticipation of this weekend's whiteout.

Lion's Pride, 112 E. College Ave., will not have any special weekend promotions, but the store is expecting a big weekend, store manager Steve Moyer said.

Moyer added that the late start should give sales a boost, and said
people are excited and willing to
spend money because the team is undefeated.

McLanahan's Student Store, 414 E. College Ave., has a large window display with a number of white shirts and a sign that announces that "a whiteout has been declared."

Manager Ron Agostinelli said that for this weekend, the store made sure to stock the shirts.

He added that the store is pricing them at a rate that should be student-friendly. White hooded sweatshirts were on sale and Agostinelli indicated
that other price drops could be in the future.

At McLanahan's, Samantha D'Amore (sophomore-political science) purchased a white hooded sweatshirt.

"White's not my favorite color; I wouldn't get it otherwise," she said. "[The whiteout] last year was really cool."

McLanahan's also stocked a special limited edition white ESPN College GameDay T-shirt with the three hosts on the front and the words "JoePa's got his groove back" on the back.

Jeff Kranzel (sophomore-accounting) was getting into the whiteout spirit by purchasing a white shirt at The Family Clothesline.

The shirt he selected to wear to the game reads "I tailgate with the best" on the front.

"I have been looking at the shirt for a while and the whiteout gave me a reason to buy it," he said.

Megan Pinto (sophomore-journalism) was also buying a white shirt with "State" written on the front at The Family Clothesline.

She explained that she had a white shirt but didn't like it so she bought a new one.