'Black Friday' sales a mix

COLUMBIA BASIN — Some Columbia Basin businesses reported “Black Friday” sales were mix when compared to last year.

The term is for the shopping day after Thanksgiving. It began with the idea of increased profits from “Black Friday” and the rest of the weekend could pull some businesses with debt out of the red and into the black.

“We were about even with last year, just a couple of dollars ahead,” said Stephanie Hawkins, owner of The Bookery in Ephrata, on Monday. “We were happy about that.”

“Sarah Palin’s book (“Going Rogue”) went like crazy. That probably would have been our biggest seller that day,” Hawkins commented.

Her business also had a 20 percent storewide sale on “Black Friday.”

In Quincy, Ace Hardware Store Manager Kay Newberry said sales “were probably slightly down, but still went really well.” Overall, though, sales “were pretty strong,” she added.

Popular items at Newberry’s store included toys, hand tools, power tools and sets of wrenches and bits.

Shoppers “were heavily into the tools, I’d say,” Newberry says.

The Quincy Ace Hardware kept the same hours on “Black Friday,” with a 7 a.m. opening and remaining open until 6 p.m. through the winter. Sunday’s store hours are 8 a.m. through 5 p.m.

At the Othello Walmart, Store Manager Mike Wilson said they “did phenomenal. It was just a great supporting of the community. We had a higher customer count, sales were great.”

Walmart shoppers sought out laptop computers, LCD televisions and MP3 players, he explained.

“A lot of electronics drove our shopping this year,” Wilson commented. “You could tell the market trend was driven by the electronics side of the business.”

Sue Torrence, owner of Sue’s Gift Boutique in Moses Lake, said the business opened an hour earlier on “Black Friday” at 9 a.m.

“It was all worth it,” Torrence says. By 9:15 a.m., shoppers filled the store all day, she explained.

“I was selling everything. I didn’t have a sale going. It was a little bit of everything. A lot of Christmas items.”

Based on the amount of customers visiting the store, Torrence estimated sales were equivalent to last year.

At the Moses Lake Staples store, spokesperson Mark Crowley said “With ‘Black Friday,’ with the holiday season in general, technology is obviously a big area of focus.”

Laptops, GPS units, flash drives, Bluetooth headsets and digital frames sold well at the Moses Lake store, he said.