BRUNSWICK

Sales were good, but not necessarily great, for some downtown Brunswick stores during Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, which last week signaled what is traditionally the official start of the holiday shopping season.

That’s according to interviews conducted Saturday afternoon with several owners and managers of Maine Street businesses.

Cathy Piffath, co-owner of Fascination Station toy store at the Tontine Mall, said that business was slow Friday and Saturday, compared to the last couple of years.

“Which surprises me, because I keep hearing the economy’s doing better,” she said. “But I haven’t seen a lot of traffic, even in the mall. I don’t think it’s just us.”

Most sales didn’t come as a result of the Friday and Saturday specials her store offered, said Piffath.

Small Business Saturday, a counterpoint to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is organized nationwide by credit card company American Express.

“The Small Business Saturday promotion has created interest, but we’re not seeing people that say, ‘I’m here because of Small Business Saturday,” said Indrani Dennen of Indrani’s, a store also at Tontine. “We’re not seeing a lot of American Express cards.”

John and Indrani Dennen said business had been good over Friday and Saturday, and better than last year.

“We’re doing well,” said Adam Smith, manager at Fleet Feet Maine Running on Maine Street. “We’re not doing as well as years past. But we’re certainly still alive and well. … I think December’s going to be a pretty good month for us.”

Smith described Black Friday as a typical Friday in terms of sales.

“It wasn’t a really good day, it wasn’t a really bad day,” he said.

Downtown stores are competing with national chains, big box stores and online giants such as Amazon. Downtown merchants said their smaller size allows them to provide more personalized customer service, which allows them to remain competitive.

“We’re people that know their products, and you’re not going to be waiting in long lines,” said Piffath.

“We’re not in the mall scene. We’re in downtown Brunswick. People aren’t flocking here for Black Friday deals,” Smith said, but he also noted that “Brunswick is a very buylocal community.”

“They like to shop local. They like to see familiar faces,” Smith said.

Locally, the day was promoted by the Brunswick Downtown Association, and about a dozen downtown Brunswick businesses offered specials and discounts during Small Business Saturday.

“We really made an effort this year to do a promotional campaign to advertise the local businesses,” said BDA Membership and Events Coordinator Melissa Grillo.

“The BDA has done a really good job at trying to help promote small businesses,” said Christine Haviland, manager of Timeless Cottage on Maine Street, who noted that business was actually better during the BDA’s Early Bird Sale held earlier this month, compared with Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

As part of its Small Business Saturday push, BDA helped facilitate a pop-up artisan shop at 90 Maine St.

For the nearly 20 merchants who participated, the pop-up shop has the advantage of no overhead costs for the artisans, said Jennifer Goodrich who runs the Grand Strand wholesale bead company with her mother and sister.

“It’s been very busy traffic wise. There’s a lot of people coming in,” Goodrich said. “Sales have been good — I wouldn’t say robust but they’ve been good. People are looking and getting ideas for Christmas and holiday gifts.”