Even with the economy in a slump, the holiday shopping season was apparently kind to Tooele retailers.

At Tooele’s new Sears Authorized Dealer store, which opened in November, sales were steady throughout the holiday season, according to owner Brian Thomas.

“We thought we had reached our peak with Black Friday, but we saw our sales keep growing all throughout December,” he said. “We definitely beat our Black Friday sales with the week of Christmas. I think having Big 5 and Walgreens both next door to us also brought in a good draw.”

Thomas understood the strong reception for a new store on Black Friday, but was surprised by his December sales.

“We saw a 50 percent increase in our original projection of sales comparing December to November,” he said.

At the other end of town, Wal-Mart Supercenter Manager Mark Wozney said his store actually did better this holiday season than the previous one.

“Overall we were pretty successful, and from what it looked like, more people were staying home to shop and not going out to the big city for everything,” Wozney said. “We had quite a lot of foot traffic, and on some days we had up to 10,000 transactions. There was a lull right after Black Friday, but things picked right back up again around mid-December. It seems like we also get more last-minute shoppers coming in every year.”

Wozney said his store’s electronics department was most likely the best-performing department in terms of sales.

“Our iPods, flat-screen TVs and Nintendo Wii systems were some of the best and fastest selling products over Christmas,” he said. “The Wii attachments also sold well, including the Wii Fit, which combines exercising with video game playing. The flat-screen TVs also seem to be something people won’t give up on no matter how bad the economy gets.”

Smaller local retailers in Tooele reported less spectacular holiday sales, though most said the season was still a good one.

Jeannie Messner, co-owner of Grandma’s Closet on Main Street, said the economy put a drag on shoppers’ spending.

“We did pretty well for our first Christmas season, but just not as good as we expected because of the economy,” she said. “We’re also still unknown to people since we’re new in town, but the recent Santa Parade did help us gain more notoriety. We sold a lot of little novelty gifts most of all.”

Sweat Pea Boutique, another independent shop on Tooele’s Main Street, also did well selling new and used children’s clothing and furniture over the Christmas season, according to manager Wendy Conklin.

“We’re not sure of the actual percentage increase, but we do know that we did better business than last year’s Christmas season,” she said. “Our general kids clothing is what sold the most, and we were pretty steady with customers all day long.”

Family Dollar was another store that thrived during the holiday shopping season. Lynette Petersen, manager of Family Dollar, said 2008’s Christmas sales were up 10 percent over last year’s Christmas shopping period, with the help of the store’s stronger marketing push on its $5 toys.

“We’ve always had $5 toys for Christmas, but this year we really focused on advertising our $5 gifts for kids,” she said. “The $5 gifts that really sold well were the little dolls and cars, but we also sold a lot of kitchen sets that came with play food and tea sets, which were $20. This year we also had a $5-and-under toy aisle, as well as another section for our other toys that were $8 or $10. We definitely exceeded our sales expectations for around Christmas this year, and we kept pretty busy most of the time.”

Local retailers seem to have done much better than their national counterparts this year. Despite deep discounts offered at many retailers, retail sales nationwide still plunged between 2 percent and 4 percent for the holiday season, according to MasterCard’s annual SpendingPulse analysis.

Doug Radunich: dougrad@tooeletranscript.com