BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632

CHAPEL HILL -- It was a good morning to sleep late if you were planning on going to downtown Chapel Hill or Carrboro to do some shopping on Black Friday.

While some shoppers may have camped out overnight at shopping centers and malls to push their way into stores to make a run for a bargain, or circled the mall parking lots searching in vain for a parking space, shoppers on Franklin Street, Weaver Street and Main Street appeared to want to sit down for breakfast or a big cup of coffee and chat awhile before venturing out to see what they could buy.

But it didn't pay to get up too early. Many shops and stores in downtown Carrboro and Chapel Hill, most with "Buy Local" stickers on their front doors, didn't open until 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.

On Main Street in Carrboro, two retail stores whose door signs said they opened at 10 a.m. on weekdays were still dark inside at 10:10 a.m. Friday.

About the only places doing business on Franklin Street before 11 a.m. were the T-shirt shops and the coffeehouses.

Chapel Hill Comics, which sells comics, children's books and various stuffed animals and toys on West Franklin Street, was one of the few stores that came close to having a "door buster" sale. Its tradition on Black Friday is to offer a 25 percent discount on most merchandise during the first hour the store is open.

Customers were waiting outside the door when they opened at 10 a.m., said Vanessa Neal, the owner's wife.

As the day progressed, the amount of the discount decreased each hour, with a 20 percent discount at 11 a.m.

"It's really about the only way we can complete with the malls is to have a sale," she said.

For other businesses, it was a normal Saturday -- no sales, no special hours.

Nearby Betty Schumacher, the manager of The Bookshop on West Franklin Street, was a bit surprised it was as busy as it was on West Franklin Street when she opened up just before 11 a.m.

"Actually I didn't expect to see any cars parked on the street," she said.

At Carr Mill Mall, where the word mall has a little different meaning than say, uh, Streets at Southpoint mall, shopkeepers watched as potential customers walked up and down in the hallway inside the old mill.

At Townsend Bertram Company, which sells outdoor clothing and camping gear, Black Friday is usually a pretty good day, said general manager Adam Van Slyke.

His customers are ones that definitely want to avoid the crowds and craziness of shopping at malls, he said.

The store doesn't hold any special sales on Black Friday, but nevertheless, it's usually a pretty good sales day for the store, he said.

Meanwhile back in downtown Chapel Hill, John Loonsk, who was visiting Chapel Hill again after moving away in 1999, and his friend Alice McCall Smith, said they were disappointed with downtown Franklin Street.

"I'm surprised at the number of closed doors," Loonsk said.

Smith thought a college town would have a better variety of local shops downtown, she said.

"If you visit here you would think, 'Oh boy. You would think there would be a lot of interesting shops,'" she said.

But you'd be wrong, she said.

"You could get lots of pizza and light blue paraphernalia," she said.

"For T-shirts and sweat shirts, there's no better place to go," Loonsk said.