The day's name derives from the long held retailing premise that the Christmas buying season is when the colors of the ink in the proverbial debit books changes from red to black.
That is to say, stores go from losing money or breaking even during the first 11 months of the year to actually starting to make some at Christmas time.
Nationwide, retailers were hoping a Black Friday boost would show up on their receipt tapes and that, despite a still flagging economy, they can get back into the black before the year's end.
In Statesville, the early returns seem to be luke warm to middling.
"We didn't have a real big first rush," said David Deal, the manager of the Sears at Signal Hill Mall. "But we've had a good steady rush, and I can tell that this year, more so than last year, people are spending money."
Sears — which was open from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m. — was one of a number of stores that extended their hours Friday.
The store's assistant manager, Brandy Stewart, did say there were a few people waiting at the front of the mall when she arrived at 3 a.m. But, she added, there was not the masses some had hoped for.
"But I'm optimistic," Deal said. "I'm always optimistic, and I think that optimism sets the tone for the whole store."
Deal said some of the wind may have been taken out of the sails of Black Friday when many stores — including retail giant Walmart — opened for business on Thanksgiving Day.
"I think you need that break," Deal said.
Ted Malinowski is the manager of the K-Mart on East Broad Street in Statesville.
He said his store saw a notable increase on this Black Friday.
"Oh, this was more than we expected," Malinowski said. "In fact, this is on the best (Black Friday's) we've had in years. I was very happy with the amount of customers we've had."
Candace Trexler is the manager of the Hickory Farms store at Signal Hill.
Hickory Farms is the type of business that not only relies on the Christmas shopping season to make it money, but is literally only in business during that period.
But Trexler said that if Friday was a indicator of things to come, the store may not do well this year.
"I opened at 6 (a.m.) and for the first few hours there was almost no one here," she said. "I guess they were all looking for sales at the big stores, but they weren't here."
Trexler said things improved a little during the course of the day, but not markedly.
"There just wasn't that many people here," she said.
Bonnie Sebastian said she was not one of those early bird-type shoppers.
"That's just too much for me," she said of getting up in the middle of the night to start shopping. "But I think I still did pretty good. I had a good day of shopping."
Nikki Smith isn't an earlier riser either. But her husband is.
"He was out at 3:15 this morning," Smith said. "He was out looking for those deals."
Did he find them?
"Oh found them all," she said.
Sallie Sanders, a salesperson at Wooten Jewelers, said Black Friday isn't a good indicator for her type of business.
"Most of the people thinking about Christmas shopping now are women," Sanders said. "And most of the people who buy jewelry as presents are men. And men like to wait until the last minute to do things. The last week or two before Christmas is when we get swamped."
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