Frantic shopping kickoff much calmer, relaxed this year

ALBANY — The busiest guys in town on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the most important shopping day of the Christmas season, were the guys doing the selling at Westover Christmas Trees. But business was still brisk at brick-and-mortar shops throughout the city.

“The atmosphere was much more relaxed today,” Alice Johnson of Columbus said as she emerged from Target with two bags of gifts. “We’ve been coming here for 10 years because of the huge crowds in Columbus. This year was different. There was no jostling around the clothing sections. People seemed to be more patient and laid back. Of course, there were some long lines at checkout, but that was to be expected.”

Johnson speculated that the lack of a typical Black Friday crush was attributable to two factors — many of the large box stores launched Christmas specials earlier in the season and the emergence of online shopping at digital retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.

A woman who was leaving the Albany Mall, but declined to give her name, agreed with Johnson.

“I didn’t have a problem this morning. I came in looking for gifts of undergarments and socks,” she said. “I haven’t been out on Black Friday in years, but this wasn’t bad today. I found what I needed with no problem. My husband dropped me off here while he went to Lowe’s, and he just pulled up.”

Kaleshia Ellis also noticed smaller, less frantic crowds.

“For this time of year, it’s not as crowded as it usually is,” she said.

While the crowds were smaller, the Christmas spirit was not flagging.

Cameron Morris, an auctioneer with Weeks Auction Group, was trimming and bagging Frazier firs as fast as he could at Westover Christmas Trees, located across the parking lot from Honeybaked Ham.

“This is our sixth year selling trees, and we are busier right now than at the same point last year, and definitely better than the past five years” Morris said. “We’ve established a reputation of getting good trees from North Carolina and always get the number we think we’ll need. We don’t really sell more of a certain size tree over others.

“But what we also sell is outstanding customer service and premium trees. That’s helped us keep repeat customers.”

And that philosophy is a reason many small brick-and-mortar shops remain in business today.

The Place on the Pointe Gift Shop is a classic example. Manager Honey Bolton oozes personality, she knows many of the her customers by name and makes a noticeable effort to keep the shop’s shelves stocked with distinctly unique items. If you are lucky you might also get a “darlin’” out of her.

It’s how you keep a small business running, and in many respects, Black Friday is just another day … except when it’s not.

“We had people in here early this year. They usually hit the big stores or the mall first,”Bolton said. “We had people here before we opened the doors this morning at 8:30. I was a little surprised by that because in the past they’d start coming in around lunchtime. But this time they were in here earlier gobbling up all of our prettys.

“It seems they are looking for things that have a little bit of nostalgia to them; stuff that brings back memories of when they were children. I think that after the storms people are really feeling Christmas this year.”