Crescent-News.com - Shoppers buck blue predictions for Black Friday

By LISA NICELY

Black Friday sales didn't only have shoppers in a happy mood, but local retailers as well.

Despite economists predicting that weak consumer confidence would hurt sales this season, representatives of local retailers said they didn't feel any holiday pinch at all.

"It was a very nice successful day for Kohl's for here," said store manager Adam Skaggs. "I was very, very pleased with the response we had that morning. It was an incredible response."

A line reached out into the parking lot at 3:30 a.m. Friday before the store's opening at 4 a.m.

Lisa Sheely of Bryan was one of the early morning shoppers waiting in line.

"I'm here for the sales," she said. "I have a lot of people to shop for."

Skaggs could not release any sales figures, but said that many shoppers continued to come into the store for sales on Saturday as well.

Kohl's wasn't the only retail outlet that was pleased with Black Friday sales.

At K-Mart in Bryan, shoppers were lined up in the parking lot at 3 a.m., too.

"We had good sales in toys and electronics," said assistant manager Bob Dilworth. He said sales figures are "pretty close to last year" for Black Friday.

Even though Elder-Beerman's did not open until few hours later, people were lined up at 3:30 a.m. in search for bargains. Many were lined up at 5 a.m.

"They've got some great sales here," said Joann Frazer of West Unity, who was waiting in line to get in on Friday.

Store manager Tom Engle said sales were comparable to last year and "traffic was pretty good" in the store. "There were several items we sold out of," he said.

"We knew we had limited qualities. They bought pretty heavily but we were able to meet the demands."

Engle said several items such as jewelry, the GPS navigation system and MP3 players went fast. Some nonseasonal items were also sold out, but rain checks were given to customers who were unable to get them.

In fact some sales items flew off the shelves at a record pace. The Wii gaming system went very quickly at many stores as did other items.

"We're very pleased," said Meijer store director Chris Arvay of Black Friday sales. "It was excellent."

Arvay said there were a few items he did not expect that went very quickly on Friday morning.

"TVs were always a big deal," he said. "But the GPS systems and digital picture frames went very quickly. Those surprised me."

There were also some other surprises this Black Friday.

"The company overall set a record (for volume and percentage of sales)," said JCPenney manager Jonathan Hagadorn.

"The Defiance area was among the best in the district. It's the biggest day we ever had as a company. It was the biggest day for the store."

Hagadorn said pieces of jewelry were big sellers for the store as were smaller electronics and one big holiday item: "We sold out of the Christmas trees."