Friday not so black locally

OXFORD HILLS - Black Friday turned out to actually be a dark shade of green for some local small business people. Others couldn't see it.

Joy Johnson, of Books N' Things on Norway's Main Street, thought "Black Friday" was slow at the shop.

"I guess people were at the 'big box' stores that had the special sales. We didn't see too many customers. But Saturday was very good. A lot of people were in town for the parade, and Sunday was busier than usual," Johnson said.

"Black Friday is usually quite sluggish for us," says Lynn Herrick, of the Candle Place, in Oxford. "But this year it was steady all weekend. We even sold out small kissing balls, and some years we wind up throwing them away."

The Secret Garden's Lou Westleigh said Black Friday was a wash-out. 

"The snowstorm didn't help," Westleigh noted. "The parade helped a little, on Saturday."

Oxford's Route 26 Antiques, Books and Collectibles had a slow weekend, said Dick St. Cyr.

"But, our business is slow this time of year. There were a lot of lookers, but not much went out to the [customers'] pickup trucks," said St. Cyr.

Diamond Cut Jewelers in Oxford had a "ordinary weekend," said Tanya Damon.

"It was nothing unusual," she summed up.

Derek Emory, at Agren Appliances and Television said the weekend was "very decent," although his store doesn't usually see tremendous upsurge this time of year.

At U.S. Cellular's South Paris store, staff found themselves fairly busy on Friday, but very busy as the weekend progressed.

"Saturday was actually a lot busier than Friday," was the opinion of Autumn Laidlaw, of the cell phone supplier.

The McLaughlin Gardens fared not so well, according to Jennifer O'Rourke.

"I expected more business to come from the parade. But we did get some people who stopped on their way to or from the big box stores. Next year we'll plan for something. We'll do better, starting next weekend, because we have events," O'Rourke said.

At Lee Auto Mall, Joe Parker commented that their trade is usually quite slow this time of year, so he was not surprised when the weekend passed quietly.

Thae Label Shopper, in Oxford, did "very well," according to Darcy Swett.

And Joe Cote, of Pa's Trading Post says he was busy Friday, but it was "no record breaker."

"Typically, we don't see as much early in the Christmas season as we do later, toward the middle and end," Cote observed.

Despite the sluggish economy and unemployment, shop-lifting seems to be static. Oxford Police Lieutenant Mike Ward says there has been no change in the number of calls his department has fielded from retailers. With the largest retail stores in the area, Oxford typically sees changes in the pattern of such thefts before other area police departments.