A busy Black Friday
Ontario retailers optimistic after brisk sales Friday
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, November 29, 2008 10:29 PM PST
| |
| D&B Supply Co. employee Katrini Burgin (left) scans the sweatshirts Colleen Froerer (center), Nyssa, is buying, while granddaughter Keilee Froerer (right) looks on during a holiday sale at the local store, Friday. Along with D&B, other Ontario retailers did brisk business Black Friday, one of the premier shopping days of the year, giving them hope for the rest of the buying season. |
ONTARIO — While scores of people lined up outside Wal-Mart, K-Mart and the other big retail giants Friday morning to take advantage of post-holiday sales, smaller Ontario stores also did brisk Black Friday business, leaving retailers hopeful this holiday season will be bright in spite of gloomy economic forecasts and the reported recession.
Joe Masar, D&B Supply Co. store manager, said the parking lot was almost full and people were waiting outside for doors to open at the regular time, 8 a.m., Friday. Rather than do the spot sales so popular on Black Friday, D&B instead has an extended sale, which, this year, began on Wednesday, generating a large number of shoppers.
“I was quite surprised about Wednesday, before Thanksgiving. You always expect it after,” Masar said, adding it was nice to see the amount of foot traffic continue on Friday.
Masar said he told his employees beforehand, how much business D&B generated on Black Friday could be an indicator of how the rest of the holiday season goes, and, if that holds to be true, the store should do quite well. He said, as of Friday a little after 2 p.m., the business had done as well, if not exceeded, last year’s sales.
“I would say it’s a good Black Friday for us,” Masar said. “We’re certainly hoping that follows through.”
He has a few ideas as to why business would be so good in light of the economic uncertainties and recession the country is facing.
“I personally wonder if it hasn’t reached us yet,” Masar said of the impacts.
Then again, he said, D&B Supply Co. has developed a niche in the area as far as their products and their customers.
“We carry an awful lot of things that people have to have,” Masar said, adding the store carries a greater amount of items that satisfy everyday needs. “They always need the cold-weather or winter clothing.”
Friday, however, Masar said, the business has sold a greater number of “big ticket” items as well, such as safes, generators and chain saws.
D&B customer Tammy Sanders, Payette, was finishing up her shopping at the store Friday afternoon after starting it by waiting in the Wal-Mart parking lot at 4:30 a.m. The parking lot was full, and when the doors opened it was hard to get anything accomplished there were so many people vying for items — mostly electronic items.
Sanders said, at one point, there were three lines extended from the grocery section to the electronics section.
“We didn’t have much luck this morning,” Sanders said. “I was going to go back to Wal-Mart, but I think we’ll just go home.”
Stores in downtown Ontario also experienced a good amount of business Friday afternoon. Grant Grigg, longtime store manager at Quisenberry’s, said the store was hopping from about 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“By noon we’d exceeded last year’s (sales),” Grigg said.
He agreed Black Friday is a good barometer for the rest of the holiday shopping season and is optimistic this year will be good, despite the “gloom and doom” reported in the media.
“But we don’t notice the peaks and valleys around here, I don’t believe,” Grigg said. “Payette and Malheur County is always in a recession.”
He did point out, however, some customers may be viewing this holiday season more conservatively than in the past.
“I heard one person make the comment, this year for her it was going to be necessities. It wasn’t going to be wants,” he said. “And I think, for some people, that might be the way they look at it. But we are optimistic, and our holiday season is always good.”
Across the street, at Oregon Trail Hobbies & Gifts, owner Cheryl Cruson said she was just getting her first chance to sit down for the day a little before 3 p.m.
“They were waiting for me at the store this morning,” Cruson said of her customers.
While her store’s items aren’t necessarily “needs,” Cruson said, in recessions and hard economic times, traditionally, hobby stores have done well as people go back to the basics and the comforting things they enjoyed in the past they can do at home.
Cruson said she expected sales were at least as good as last year and maybe better. She also said customers brought friends and family members visiting for the holidays into the store to shop.
“So I’m opting to stay very optimistic,” Cruson said.
