Black Friday good day for Llano, Burnet sales

November 27, 2012, 9:00 pm by Christy Clardy

Local retailers say they saw an increase in Black Friday shoppers and sales this year, but stores had mixed results on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.

Llano and Burnet stores reported big sales on Saturday, but some Marble Falls shops saw fewer customers than years past.

Known as Small Business Saturday nationally, the weekend following turkey day is recognized as the time to spend money locally. The Marble Falls branch of retail chain store Bealls saw a steady stream of customers both days, manager Rosemary Dowdy said. The store was also open on Thanksgiving night, which brought out a large number of shoppers.

"On Black Friday we’re always busy; Saturday, we’re usually pretty busy until about 1 o’clock, and that’s what we saw this year,” Dowdy said. "But this year we were open Thanksgiving night, and I’ve never seen that many shoppers in a single store in a town of this size. We had people lining up outside the door. I did meet and exceed the goals I had for this week, so I’m very happy.”

Saturday did not meet expectations for some local stores. Vanessa Monette owns Plenty Boutique and Butterfly Babies Boutique inside Old Oak Square in Marble Falls. She said Black Friday was great for the stores, but the next day fell below the average set by previous years.

For more of this story, see Wednesday's Llano County Journal.