By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Christmas music was playing in Ron Menapace’s store on Hulfish Street on black Friday morning, the sounds meant to get shoppers in the holiday spirit.
Crowds of children, teens and adults took to the streets of downtown Princeton to walk off all the turkey and stuffing. Retailers, pausing from handling all the customers on the busy shopping day, expressed optimism about how they’ll do in the coming weeks.
”This is really the funest part of the year for us,” said Dorthea von Moltke, co-owner of Labyrinth Books, where late-morning shoppers browsed.
”I think it’s been pretty busy,” said Joanne Farrugia, owner of toy store jaZams on Palmer Square.
A national survey found that 147 million people planned to shop during the black Friday weekend, slightly down from the same period last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Even with a shaky economy that has the state unemployment rate at 9.7 percent for October, New Jersey residents got to malls and box stores early to get a jump on their shopping. Local retailers said they were hopeful for a good holiday season, although they added that factors out of their control might influence how much customers spend.
Some expressed a similar view about a post Hurricane Sandy hangover. They said they think shoppers are not in the Christmas shopping mood three weeks after the storm, and that Sandy related cleanup costs will put a crimp on gift-buying budgets.
”They have priorities, and I can’t blame them,” said Henry Landau, of Landau of Princeton.
Brian Harris, general manager of the Princeton Running Company, said he suspected people spent money on the cleanup and don’t have that much to spread around for gifts.
Rita Conallen, owner of Urban Grace in Palmer Square, felt the storm has “definitely affected everyone’s mood.”
This weekend was also the time for the “Small Business Saturday” promotion by credit card company American Express to encourage people to support local businesses.
In front of his store, Mr. Landau had a shirt hanging that bore the promotion’s motto “shop small.” Ms. von Moltke said she sensed that the buy local movement “is gaining traction.”
Asked what gave her that feeling, she pointed to all the customers browsing books in her store in the morning. She said she sees fewer people looking at books and then checking their cell phones to see how much cheaper they can buy them on Amazon.com.
Ms. Farrugia noted that with Hanukkah early this year, it spreads out the shopping season. Another plus for retailers, she said, is that there are five Saturdays before Christmas.

