Tom Heywood, co-owner of the Babbling Book on Main Street, was ready and eager for his biggest sales day of the year. Make that every town merchant’s best sales day.
This would be more epic than any mere cruise ship invasion at the height of summer. Heck, he figured, sales might even top two cruise ships.
It was Black Friday; that fabled shopping day after Thanksgiving when Haines residents join the rest of the consumer universe to spend their hard-earned cash like there was no money-spending tomorrow, get Christmas buying lists out of the way early and get ready to shop until they drop.
Heywood opened his doors at 10 a.m., ready to sell anything and everything at 20 percent off.
And he waited.
10:15 came and went. Then 10:30.
There were no lines outside the door, not a customer to be found – not like the time Heywood and his wife Liz opened at midnight to accommodate the newest Harry Potter release. That line snaked down Main Street.
Nope; not a cash register ding in the place on this morning.
Then, at 10:45 a.m. – Bingo! – the door opened and a customer walked in.
And the onslaught began. The second sale came at 11 a.m. By then, the store had half a dozen browsers, credit cards and cash at the ready. People buzzed like free electrons in a petri dish.
And the bookstore owners smiled.
“This is the frenzy,” Liz Heywood joked from behind the counter.
Like everything else, Haines does Black Friday in its own decidedly-unhurried way. Unlike the rat race of the Lower 48, there would be no freeway jams here, no flash-fire tempers, no sharp elbows over the best buys.
On Black Friday, many people here draw the line on spending their money on Amazon and other far-away online retailers. This was a day to revel in Haines and help local businesses stay afloat during the long winter months. Not to mention buying something that was bona fide made-in-Alaska.
To add to the picture-postcard holiday atmosphere, snow started falling in the early afternoon.
Across Haines, residents see the day as an opportunity not only to score a few deals, but run into their neighbors and catch up on gossip around town.
But nobody, it seems, is in a rush to get started.
“In Haines, we do Black Friday a lot more relaxed,” said Rhonda Hinson, who owns Alaska Rod’s art consignment store on Main Street. “In the outside world, people get started at 3 a.m. Around here, we open at the normal time.”
But in its own way, Haines was ready. More than two dozen stores in town featured some kind of sale on Friday, which morphed into Small Business Saturday the following day.
At Alaska Rod’s, there were mammoth ivory and gem stones at up to 60 percent off.
As she weaved back and forth, standing in front of the behind-the-counter heater, dressed in her Santa Claus hat, Hinson said she even plays personal shopping assistant.
At Skipping Stone Studios, owner Joanie Wagner priced everything in the shop at 10 percent off. And if customers got lucky, they’d also get a four-legged greeting from Dolo, the Belgian Malinois and retired police dog from Muncie, Ind.
When customers walked into The Parts Place, owner Tomi Scovill held up a spark plugs box filled with pieces of paper for an in-store raffle in which people could win a can of de-icer or even cash off their next purchase.
A sign on the door advertised “filters, caps, rotors and plugs” at 20 percent off. That was posted above a year-round placard that read “If you’re smoking in here, you better be on fire!”
Scovill said many of her customers waited until Black Friday to stock up on expensive items such as diesel filters that can run $70 or more apiece. And, of course, their free gift.
At Howsers IGA, Hunt’s-brand canned tomatoes and canned spaghetti sauce were on Black Friday sale for a buck apiece. Everyone, it seemed, was in the spirit of selling something for less. Except for the Fogcutter Bar, where a few men leaned over beers in the late morning.
But this was a bar, alcohol was served here; people would come anyway.
At Talia’s Treasures, owner Tammy Hauser was in the holiday mood. Not only did she advertise her own sales, but promoted the sale going on at the Moose Caboose across the street.
“Black Friday is a day for both buyer and seller,” said Hauser, whose store is named after her 6-year-old daughter. “It’s important that residents and merchants help each other get through these cold winter months.”
But if Haines had a Grand Central Station, the Babbling Book was it on this Black Friday.
As a half-dozen customers gathered around the cash register, Liz Heywood played a YouTube video that former residents produced called “Black Friday – Haines Alaska” in which townsfolk poked fun at their annual tradition. Filmed in 2012, the video already has nearly 8,000 views.
In the video, complete with a twangy banjo musical score, two residents marvel tongue-in-cheek that there are five cars on the street in downtown Haines and that they have to hurry before the deals are gone and they lose their parking spaces.
At the bookstore, people lined up to buy calendars, a moose ornament, a 2017 Farmer’s Almanac, books and more books.
Liz was glad her husband Tom had something to keep him busy, for once. Many times, she comes into the store to find numerous YouTube files opened up on the behind-the-counter computer.
“I’m not running for the employee of the month,” Tom said.
“You gave that up years ago,” his wife shot back.
Both turned and marveled at something they don’t see every day in Haines: A line of smiling local customers, waiting patiently to spend their money.
Tom knew that soon enough the place would be quiet again. He’d have time to get to his YouTube research.