BEEVILLE — For a lot of shoppers, the idea of facing large crowds for a few good deals is not enough to drag them out of the house the day after Thanksgiving.

But that appeared not to be the case last Friday for Beeville area shoppers. Black Friday lived up to expectations for businesses.

“We did fabulous,” said Mary Aman of the Wicker Basket. “We were busy all day long from open to close.”

Mark Zamora, manager at Beall’s Department Store, said most of the crowd at his store came in midday Friday.

“From about 10 till 12,” he said of the rush on the clothing on his racks.

This year, most customers found the best shopping on Thanksgiving Day at Beall’s.

“We didn’t know how we would do,” Zamora said. It was the first time his store had been open on Thanksgiving. But the experiment worked out all right. “We did well,” the manager said.

Although the staff at the Walmart Supercenter would not comment on how sales went at Beeville’s store, shoppers who were there reported that the parking lot filled up Thursday evening and stayed full through Friday.

Of course, Walmart was doing what most businesses do for the Black Friday event and offering knockout deals on all kinds of products.

The Sears store in the College North Shopping Center was crowded throughout Friday with shoppers taking advantage of the deals that store was offering.

Jacob Garcia said the business had plenty of sales and price breaks that customers wanted.

Mark Parsons of Hogue’s Jewelry downtown also was happy with the way sales were recorded on Friday.

“They went real well,” Parsons said.

He was impressed with the number of out-of-town shoppers who came to his store and took advantage of the sales and specials.

Pandora, one of his suppliers, had offered some Black Friday deals, and Parsons and his wife, Debbie, also had offered some bargains for their customers.

Gary Kent is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 120, or at reporter@mySouTex.com.