Black Friday was deemed a success by retailers who saw thousands of shoppers flood their stores in the early morning hours last week as sales continued through yesterday with Cyber Monday.Though hard numbers have yet to be reported, Paula Clarke, chairman of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s retail division, said that Friday appeared to have been a triumph with positive feedback from shoppers who braved heavy rain to take advantage of deals starting as early as 12am.“I think the diversity of offers and operating hours created a lot of buzz in Hamilton and most certainly got people thinking about Christmas,” she said. “I believe that people are finally taking the time to compare what Bermuda has to offer in terms of value and selection and choosing to shop at home. When customers do the math they see that for price and convenience Bermuda is the right choice.”Retail store AS Cooper, which participated in Black Friday for the first time this year, was satisfied with the outcome.“We experienced strong Black Friday sales throughout the day and we will certainly do it again next year,” said Somers Cooper, managing director of AS Cooper. “This was the first year we participated so we have now established an expectation benchmark both internally and with the public.”AS Cooper did not participate in Cyber Monday this year but hopes to do so in the future as they expand their product offering online.According to Gorham’s director Rod Farrington, their Black Friday event was the most successful to date.“We sold out on most of the specials promoted during the event,” he said. “My guess is about 50 percent of the purchases on Black Friday were for personal use and the other 50 percent were for Christmas gifts.”This week, the store continues the sales with their corporate event nights.Digicel, which had customers queuing up as early as 10am on Thursday last week to snap up deeply discounted deals on the latest Samsung Galaxy phone, found that their sales were in line with last year’s numbers.Over at Gibbons, shoppers appeared to be happy with the selection and price of merchandise.“The feedback we have in our stores is very positive, we even had customers phone in this morning complimenting us on the resilience of our sales staff who continued to provide knowledgeable customer service late into Friday evening,” said Ms Clarke, who is also the CEO of Gibbons. “This is of course as it should be and what we strive for every day; what is encouraging is that people took the time to compliment us.”Four Star’s Belcario Thomas said shoppers even got out of bed early to capitalise on his company’s special pizza deals.“It was a resounding success, almost overwhelmingly enjoyed by our customers,” Mr Thomas said.People were lined up outside when Four Star opened at 5am and at one stage more than 100 people were in the queue, as customers sought to take advantage of a ten-inch pizza plus plus water for $5. The offer was extended until supplies started to run out, Mr Thomas said.“It was a lot of fun, we had ten of our best pizza makers and managers on-site to execute from 3.30am,” Mr Thomas added. “We had some Vibe 103 pumping things up and two of our Four Star off-site tents and flags up to make things more festive and, importantly, to protect our customers from the rain.”