Black Friday sales inch up from last year

Published 11:30 am Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Most of the Promenade Shopping Center in Fultondale was abandoned on Thanksgiving day, with one exception.

The area in front of Best Buy was a makeshift basketball court and campground, as people began lining up as early as Wednesday night for Black Friday sales.

For the fourth year in a row, Gardendale neighbors Sean Crum, Tyler Crum, David “Gruder” McCombs and Craig McCombs were the first in line at Best Buy. The four set up their tent at 9 p.m. Wednesday and spent Thanksgiving day playing basketball in front of the store.

Best Buy manager Sarah Washington said she arrived at work early Friday to find a crowd.

“When I got here at two, it was lined up almost to JC Penney,” she said.

Washington was unable to release sales figures, but said “everything was fine” at her store on Friday.

David McCombs said he was not in line for a specific item; rather, he and his friends said they were camping out mainly for the experience.

Others did have shopping on their minds, however, as stores in north Jefferson County reported crowds and profits during the weekend that traditionally kicks off the Christmas shopping season.

“Overall, things were good on Friday,” said Mike Chandler, manager of Walmart in Gardendale. “We had a big turnout. A lot of folks were here for the midnight sale as well as the five o’clock sale.”

Chandler, who became manager on Nov. 20 after former manager Derek Freeman transferred to the Jasper store, said the hot items this year were toys, electronics, bedding and cookware.

The north Jefferson County area seems to have followed national trends. Across the country, there was a 0.3 percent increase in spending on Black Friday this year than on the same day in 2009, according to research company ShopperTrak. Pedestrian traffic increased by 2.2 percent.

“Our whole week last week was just real good,” said Gail Chambers at Dreams Avenue in Morris. She said sales at her store increased over the same week last year.

“It has picked up considerably,” she said. “We just hope it will continue through Christmas.”

At Launius Furniture in Warrior, Sandy Mann also said the weekend was successful.

“We did well Friday and Saturday,” she said.

While Black Friday has been on the radar since at least the 1990s, this year introduced a new promotion: Small Business Saturday. Local businesses saw mixed results from the attempt to bring shoppers into the doors of mom and pop merchants following Black Friday.

“Two or three people came to shop locally with us because it was Small Business Saturday,” said Mann. She said the customers had heard about the promotion and wanted to support businesses in their own city.

Chambers at Dreams Avenue said she heard about the promotion on the news, but saw no results from it in her own store.

It was the same story at Butterflies in Fultondale. Owner Lynn Dodson said Black Friday weekend typically benefits larger stores.

“We never expect a huge day the day after Thanksgiving,” Dodson said. “People tend to go to the ‘big box’ stores and wait in line so they can get a lot items at once. We’ve learned that’s not our busy weekend, but it rolls pretty heavily all through December.”

Dodson saw no results, either, from Small Business Saturday, but she hopes it catches on.