Retail staff in Hamilton came in for heartfelt praise from their top management yesterday after a busy Black Friday morning, which saw many staff members preparing their shops until the early hours, while others came into work to prepare for opening times which began as early as midnight.Paula Clarke, Gibbons Company chief executive officer and head of the retail division of the Chamber of Commerce, spoke after their 5am opening and said: “The service was there — here at Gibbons the lines moved quickly because we had enough people in the departments. The store was extremely well organised and very calm. Items and discounts were signed very clearly, which all really helped the shopping experience for the customer.“Our staff were really professional and eager to welcome customers into the store — everyone is very professional here — we do a lot of training,” she said. “It’s times like this that it really comes to its own.”Dawn Zuill, owner of Daisy’s clothing store on Front Street and Daisy & Mac’s children’s store on Queen’s Street also praised staff.“They have been absolutely wonderful to make it all happen — they have gone above and beyond the call of duty, and have been very excited about the Black Friday event.”She credited all retailers who offer discounts on Black Friday because she said they contribute to making the Christmas season more successful. “Belco bills and wages do not get discounted, so this is a real gift on the part of the retailers — especially in these trying times.“The day, so far, is on a par with last year, which is as much as you can hope for — to maintain is as good as you could wish for. ““One cannot do it alone — the key is to have a really good team,” said Phoenix Group chief executive officer George Grundmuller. “Everyone has worked hard for months to plan this event. The team work has really paid off, from organising Black Friday T-shirts, to the music and everything else.”In the early hoursd yesterday Frank Amaral, of CellOne, was maintaining order among the dozens of people crowding their Church Street store. A police estimate of 400 to 500 people waiting to go shopping for the deals on offer at the CellOne and Digicel stores on Church Street was an indicator of the success of their Black Friday.“It is our single best day,” he said, and explained the blitz translates into their strongest selling period next only to the Christmas shopping season.Marico Thomas, of Four Star Pizza, said he sold more than 700 Black Friday pizza specials yesterday. Their deal was a $5 pizza with free Dasani water, and the special ran from 5am to 10am. Mr Thomas said people were lining up at 4.45am and were still in line at 10am."We were the first restaurant to participate in Black Friday," Mr Thomas said. “Some of the commentary was who would want a pizza for breakfast, but as we saw that many people decided to take the deal and heat it up and eat it later.”For AS Cooper and Sons Ltd., it was their first year to do Black Friday. “We opened at 6am,” said managing director Somers Cooper.“We’re trying out the strength of social media,” he said. “We’re doing a ‘Facebook Frenzy’, so every hour on the hour we post a new deal — and we are offering it just on Facebook. We’re beating it on the airwaves and in the newspaper.”Their Facebook page had added 300 names in 24 hours.“It’s been really positive,” he said. “Bermuda seems to have welcomed the whole Black Friday concept with open arms.”Mr Grundmuller said the Phoenix Group’s performance yesterday: “ ... has been really good — a great morning, and I personally am very amazed at how many people were there, and so early.“We set a target and we are ahead of that, so from that perspective we are very happy — and we are not even half way through the day.”Mr Grundmuller also talked about methods of encouraging shoppers to come into the stores and to spend money there. “After one day of big discounts of 40 to 50 percent, we see a continuation of customers, coming in and taking advantage of 20 percent discounts,” he explained.“What brings the customer in at the end of the day is the deal — in difficult economic times, the deal is everything . And we are very happy to offer deals to our customers,“Traditionally Black Friday is set aside to give back to the customer — to have sustained us all year, and to kick off the holiday season.”Ms Clarke concurred with Mr Grundmuller: “Savvy shoppers take advantage of a good deal — and even though it was raining, they were determined to stick it out and take advantage of a bargain.“There is value for dollar when shopping in Bermuda,” she said.”The prices are fabulous. People I’ve spoken to on the street were very upbeat and positive — they were having a good time and there was a lot of social interaction.”