Shops Enjoy Holiday Boost

In the wake of “Black Friday,” traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year in the United States, stores in Harvard Square expressed modest confidence in their sales this weekend, despite the absence of students over Thanksgiving break.

While none witnessed the overnight lines or shopfloor brawls seen elsewhere in the country, many local businesses said yesterday they expected to equal or improve upon their performances last year.

And the varying successes of Harvard Square businesses point to trends in consumption and tourism in Cambridge over the holiday weekend, with growth more pronounced at larger stores and branches of national chains.

Urban Outfitters claimed to be experiencing a typical rise in purchases this year, while employees at the Gap and Jasmine Sola said they were too busy to comment.

“We’re steadily increasing every year,” said David Bergeron, a manager at Urban Outfitters. “Around Thanksgiving, we can pretty much expect to get flooded.”

But the Square’s smaller, independent stores were more cautious in their evaluation of the weekend. “We don’t get slammed like the malls, but we make a lot at this time of year,” said Marka Valdez at Berk’s shoe store.

Frances Cardullo, president of Cardullo’s, however, called growth “flat. Totally flat.”

“People are not coming to Harvard Square to shop any more,” Cardullo said. “There’s no draw from eclectic stores.”

Stephen Yoccl of Leavitt & Pearce said that his store probably suffers in competition with malls due to a lack of parking and the fact that it couldn’t hold sales.

An assistant manager at Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in Brattle Square, Kevin Walker, said that business was done very differently at the Harvard Square location than at EMS’s larger outlet stores. He said EMS’s larger stores saw much greater increases with this weekend’s sales, while his branch does better around events such as the Head of the Charles and Harvard Parent’s Weekend, and any day it snows.

Many retailers said the Square was losing its status as a unique shopping destination as it draws more and more tourists. Nicole MacDonald, manager of Jasmine Sola’s shoe store, said that in contrast to the larger Jasmine Sola clothing store next door, the shoes were not drawing customers.

“It’s dead. People come in but they don’t buy anything,” MacDonald said.

This trend, with visitors choosing large chains over local shops, was in evidence at other retailers in the Square.

At Tealuxe, a cafe and tea emporium, assistant manager Chris Rosen said that business in the cafe was going “pretty well, as well as expected. But shopping, not so much.”

Starbucks employee Todd Denman, on the other hand, said that trade in the chain’s location in the Garage was “busier, much busier” than at this time last year.

The after-Thanksgiving sales are traditionally very important for retailers’ profits, as well as an indicator of the economy as a whole.

Indeed, “Black Friday” earned its name because it is the day on which traders historically moved “out of the red.”

“Without the holidays, Cardullo’s cannot and will not survive in the Square,” Cardullo said.

The National Retail Federation reported that $27.8 billion was spent this weekend, a 21.9 percent increase from last year, although a report by the independent researcher ShopperTrak Corp. said that spending was relatively similar to last year.