Black Friday rocked! That’s the word from the Flying Pig. Our first ever Black Friday sale was a huge success.

Big sale weekends are festive. There is something really exciting about a store that is truly jam-packed with people carrying armloads of books. We worked hard making recommendations, ringing people up, and yes, even wrapping. We played Christmas music, stocked up on cookies and hit the ground running at 9 a.m.

Did we pull in our fantasy cash? Yes, pretty much. And better than money was the sheer number of brand-new customers who came to the store. Who all said how much they loved it.

It’s always amazing to me that folks haven’t been to the store yet. I know that’s silly — we live in a large county — but after thirteen years, I’m still surprised. The beauty of the Friday sale was that our gorgeous newsletter (designed by Elizabeth, who worked like crazy to get it ready for this past weekend) was given out to every customer. So not only did folks load up on great books, they got to see, read and enjoy our newsletter. This year’s edition features more than 160 books. I have to trust that these folks will come in to order books from us and not go to Amazon. That’s the risk any bookseller takes when they produce anything. You just keep your fingers crossed that the Shop Local message has sunk in, and in Vermont, it certainly has.

While our weekend was outstanding, even though the sale was only for Friday, I was confined to my house for a small case of piglet flu. Not full-blown H1N1 by any means, but the worst cold I’ve ever had. So, while I slept the weekend away, the cash registers continued to ring.