Local retailers see mixed start to shopping season

LYNN ? Dick Covert has been selling televisions and electronics at his Wyoma Square store for over 40 years, in good times and bad, so it came as no surprise that Black Friday sales were a bit off.”Unfortunately, most people feel obliged to go to malls and superstores, but we are competitively priced,” he said Monday. “We offer major brands like Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba, and some of our off brands are even less money.”According to Covert, smaller stores like Covert TV & Stereo at 334 Broadway differ from their superstore counterparts by offering personalized service. “We do our best to compete with the big stores. We also offer delivery and service our customers directly. Customers call us right here if they need service or help,” he said.Covert said his goal is to continue to run the landmark business just as he has for four decades.”Black Friday wasn’t horrible. I guess you could say it was fair,” he said. “We’re hoping that people will shop local for personalized service. We’re hoping that we see more sales activity as we move toward Christmas.”Sales of 40-inch LCD TVs with high-definition capability were relatively healthy, he said, adding, “We also saw the price of Blu-ray DVD players drop dramatically. You can get one for $149 and it can play any disk, even the older ones, but to get the Blu-ray affect you have to have an HD TV.”The well-known Lynn merchant advises his customers to consider more than price before making a purchase. “I hope people aren’t cutting themselves short with price only,” he said. “They should consider quality first, and then price.”At Tri-City Sales, which christened its new showroom last year at 272 Highland Ave. in Salem, company president Rick Cohen said business on Black Friday was brisk.”We saw a spike over the weekend. I think people know that this is when stores are trying to do something to get their business,” he said Monday. “We were actually very busy. Given that Black Friday is generally associated with electronics and televisions, which everybody sells these days, we did very well with our appliances.”According to Cohen, appliance manufacturers offered extra rebates and special discounts on products such as energy-efficient front-load washers and dryers. “There were deep discounts on certain models, which created a lot of activity,” he said. “Several of the appliance manufacturers came to this Black Friday party, which was previously an electronics event.”Many customers were driven to Tri-City Sales stores in Salem and Ipswich by the Black Friday media hype. “Ninety percent of our business is appliances,” Cohen said. “We bought heavily into these models and there are legitimate deals out there right now. In the past month, we started seeing a little more traffic and that’s what we would like to see continue through the holiday season.”