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Early sales give area retailers high hopes for a merry Christmas shopping season

By Ashley Rader

As shopping bags were filled, the national sales totals kept climbing to make this year’s Black Friday shopping weekend one of the most successful starts to the holiday shopping season in years.
And many Carter County retailers shared in that success.
“We were covered up on Thanksgiving,” said Tammy Bowles, manager of Peebles department store in Elizabethton.
She said the Black Friday shopper turnout was comparable with last year’s, but noted this was the first year the store had been open on Thanksgiving. She said it was a corporate decision to open the store on Thanksgiving.