Community Corner
Black Friday Not a Big Deal for Cycle Shop Owner
Dillon Pronovost, owner of Cheshire Cycle on West Main Street, said he expects more business tomorrow on Small Business Saturday.
Black Friday gets loads of news coverage, but it’s not such a huge sales day for small, local businesses like .
Owner Dillon Pronovost said he expects a lot more business tomorrow, which is billed as Small Business Saturday by a promotion spearheaded by American Express and many state and local officials and organizations across the country.
"Black Friday is always a mall day," said Pronovost, explaining why sales seemed so slow on what is usually billed as the biggest shopping day of the year.
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Two bicycles came in for minor repairs, however, because the seasonally warm, sunny day was perfect bicycling weather.
Pronovost said he timed his primary sales promotion for a week later, to run from Dec. 1 to Dec. 10.
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"Bikes anywhere from 20 to 25 percent off. Accessories 25 percent off. Some giveaways," he said.
He predicted he would sell 80 to 100 bicycles during the Christmas shopping season.
But Pronovost noted that big retail outlets would do a big business on sales items on Black Friday. He said he went to Wal-Mart on Thursday and that store had low-price televisions stacked up in the dairy department because they didn’t have room for them in the electronics department.
Janice Pirozzoli of Hamden stopped by the Pier 1 store to buy a gift for some people she would visit that evening.
"It’s one of my favorite stores," she said. But Pirozzoli wasn’t doing any shopping on Black Friday. She had already purchased most of her holiday presents, she said.
Chris Quinn, who just moved to Cheshire, said she was "just looking" when she visited Pier 1. She wasn’t doing much Black Friday shopping either, choosing instead to give gift cards or shop online.
