Nov 17, 2010

Small retailers set for Black FridayBy Arielle KassAJC.com

Susie Mauldin estimates she goes through eight to 10 gallons of coffee on the day after Thanksgiving.

Not personally, mind you. But the customers who frequent her Marietta Square boutique on Black Friday have been up since the crack of dawn to shop. When they arrive at Limelight later in the morning, she reasons, they can use some caffeine.

“They start their day at the big boxes,” Mauldin said of her Black Friday customers. “By the time they get to us, they want to chill.”

So Mauldin provides customers with cookies, brownies and lots of Starbucks coffee.

This year, retailers expect an increase in sales on Black Friday and throughout the holiday season, though the amount of optimism varies.

Market research firm IBIS World projects sales of $11.7 billion, a 1.9 percent increase over 2009, on Black Friday itself, and a 3.4 percent increase over the course of the weekend. Wells Fargo is predicting a 5 percent increase in holiday sales — the biggest since 2005 — while the National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to be up 2.3 percent.

Small chains and boutiques can’t compete with large national retailers when it comes to the hype of their door-busting deals. Some small retailers don’t try to compete at all. Others do Black Friday their own way.

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