Havre sees successful Black Friday and Small Business Saturday

Both locally owned and corporate businesses in Havre reported massive success for this year's Black Friday weekend.

Some of the locally owned businesses also said they saw a large number of sales and high foot traffic for the ninth annual Small Business Saturday.

Scott Young, owner with his wife Kay of Norman's Ranch and Sportswear, said the store had a 25 percent-off sale for everything in the store Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"It was great," he said, adding that he saw heavy traffic Friday and Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon, he said, slowed down as people went to the events in Town Square.

"Friday was great," Young said. "We were busy from the time we opened to the time we closed."

People's buying habits were a mixture of everything, he said. He added that he was grateful for the community support and was happy with how everything turned out.

And stores are continuing throughout the holiday season.

Young is also setting up a holiday village window display this year, a miniature display of a town with people, trees and other things.

One of the prizes for the Cowboy Christmas fundraiser for the Montana State University-Northern rodeo teams is displayed in his store. The prize is a kids electric motorized car, he said, which was donated by the Tilleman Motor Co. He added that tickets for the fundraiser are for sale in his store as well.

Havre Book Exchange owner Sue Pollington said she also saw high foot traffic in her store Friday and Saturday. She said she lowered her prices for romances and a few other genres for Black Friday and accepted straight trades for books.

She added that earlier that week she also held Giving Tuesday. Pollington said she has been working with Linda Bloom, a teacher in the Hutterite colony, to award a child a free book of their choosing for their independent reading.

"I'm just grateful," Pollington said. "Havre is the best for store customers, and I'm happy being part of the community in any way, and I think many other small business owners feel the same way."

Pollington said local businesses are well-cared for in the Havre community and she believes all small businesses appreciate the support.

Brandon Moomey, owner of Liberty Rental, said his business saw a busy weekend. Liberty Rental sells and leases furniture and appliances, he said.

The business, which started in Havre as Liberty Rental, switched to Aaron's, then switched back to Liberty Rental Aug. 1.

He said he switched back to Liberty Rental because he wanted more products to be available to a wider range of people and that since the switch, business at the location has gotten better.

Moomey said he ran promotions Friday and Saturday to encourage people start their first week of payments including $5 down to start a lease. Moomey added that he thought this was a success and hopes to do more in the future.

"We are going to continue to try different things," he said.

Kasey Dietz, store manager at the Havre Walmart Supercenter, said the store was full over Black Friday.

He added that, over the course of the weekend, Walmart's two big ticket items, a 65-inch television included with a Roku package and the smaller 55-inch television with the same package, sold out.

Dietz said a new process Walmart tried over the Black Friday weekend was a hand-held check-out device. This device, he said, was very successful in checking customers out in a timely manner and kept traffic moving.

He said the device is a small, phone sized, scanner that associates can use to check out people with basket and large items. Customers can pay with a credit card or through their Walmart account ,with the receipt sent instantly via email or the Walmart app, he added.

"It sped up the check-out process," Dietz said.

He added that Walmart is also involved in the Angel Tree program with the Salvation Army and encourages everyone to come by to grab a tag off the tree and purchase a gift for the person whose name they take.