Black Friday sales generated mixed results from retailers, but CLC Bookcenters reported strong sales, many driven by War Room presales.

Jim Pitman, director of retail operations for CLC Ministries International, said CLC’s Black Friday prominently featured presale promotions.

“We are praising God for a very good Black Friday weekend this year, with sales in our three stores up from 6 percent to 16 percent year over year,” Pitman said. “Our advertising plan included using radio, social media, catalog and in-store handouts to promote, among other things, the presale of the War Room DVD at a special low price. This led to the presale of over 500 War Room DVDs between the three stores and brought in many customers who also purchased Bibles, books and other items from our sale tables. We will continue the promotion by promoting the presale of the Woodlawn DVD (due late January) to those same customers when they come in on Dec. 22 to pick up their War Room DVD. May the Lord use all these resources for His glory and to motivate the church to pray!”

Dave Almack, CLC’s national director and publisher, said these sales represented an improvement over last year.

“We had a great weekend and are praising God for a sales increase over the previous year,” Almack said.

Researcher C. Britt Beemer thought Black Friday sales disappointed many retailers this year.

“I think Thursday was an incredible day for shoppers but a lousy day for product,” said Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group (ARG). “Our numbers said that two-thirds of shoppers on Thursday evening already bought the early bird specials. Friday was a better day for retailers making money, but there were fewer shoppers out because the early bird specials weren’t as good. I think retailers were disappointed.”

Beemer said the stores that started sales Thanksgiving Day and continued through Friday had more disappointing sales numbers than stores that closed Thursday and only started sales at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. Friday.

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