Black Friday Boosts Retailers

Stampeders and shoplifters appeared to stay home for Black Friday.

From Towson Place to Towson Town Center, the vibe at area retailers was one of calm, reasoned crowds. Police say that aside from a few minor incidents, Towson was relatively quiet, despite the deluge of bargain-hunters.

Some area stores, including some at Towson Town Center, eschewed the morning rush by opening at midnight. Others, like Target and Walmart, opened long before sunrise. This allowed for a few kinks to be worked out and let the serious bargain hunters get their fill early. The Baltimore Sun reported on some of them.

At the smaller Shops at Kenilworth, everything opened at the usual time, spokeswoman Joan Denenberg said, something she chalks up to how few national chains are in the mall. Nobody feels they really need to open early

"There's a real sort of loyalty because [shoppers] know the owners," she said.

Joe Szaller manages Stebbins Anderson. He was posted by the store's first floor entrance throughout the day greeting customers. It's his twelfth Black Friday and, he said, "they keep getting busier as they get longer."

Many of his customers come to Stebbins to buy Christmas decorations after they grab bargains elsewhere. Some are just making their rounds.

"They want to look at this and look at that and usually they end up not buying anything," he said.

About a dozen Towson Town Center stores opened at midnight, according to the mall's general manager, Charles Crerand. The mall offered $10 mall gift cards to shoppers who spent $100 there, and Crerand said supplies ran out by 9:30 a.m. Open parking spaces were few and far between, and off-duty police were directing traffic.

For some stores in the mall's luxury wing, like Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co., it's their first holiday season and mall officials are very excited to see how the holiday crowd responds.

"We couldn't be more excited," said Diane Brown, a vice president of Tiffany & Co. who manages stores in the mid-Atlantic region. Though the store had no specific Black Friday specials, Brown said, "Traffic has been consistently steady all day."

What are the top sellers at Tiffany? Brown points to the Tiffany Keys and Return to Tiffany collections. The jewelry can run anywhere between $100 and thousands of dollars, depending on the metal. And speaking of metal, Brown also expects to sell plenty of engagement rings.

"What better time?" she asks.