GULF SHORES, Ala. — Known as the most active shopping day of the year, Black Friday usually calls for slashing prices and shoving shoppers.

Scenes of frenzied crowds dashing through stores in years past are not expected by national retailers this year.

With the economy hurting, shoppers are expected to spend conservatively this holiday season.

However, Pleasure Island may be unaffected this Christmas season and won’t be seeing red at year’s end.

In a typical market, businesses rely on the holiday season to put them in the black — turning a profit.

However, the summer-oriented market the Gulf Coast sits in alters local businesses’ fiscal year.

The financial push from tourists in the summer allows merchants to ease through the holidays, already sitting in the black.

Also, with the financial demographic of most Gulf Coast residents, people aren’t having to make major cuts parallel with the national trend.

It is that comfort that keeps minds at east for Books-A-Million general manager Edith Yarbrough and Diamond Jewelers owner Don Goodman.

Black Friday also kicks off Christmas shopping and both Goodman and Yarbrough said they don’t expect to see recession with their business.

“In the jewelry business usually the busy time is in the last quarter of the year,” Goodman said. “Because this area is a tourist area we do really well May through September.”

Goodman said December is still his busiest month, but the summer rush exists too. He hasn’t seen a slow down in business this year and is ahead of last year’s figures.

Because of that he plans to see the typical rush for the holiday season, including Black Friday. While he is safely projecting a 10 percent decrease for holiday profits he thinks there might not be a reduction at all.

To prepare for this year’s shoppers, Goodman has introduced a new jewelry line to his inventory to offer something new to his clientele.

Diamond Jewelers is an Independent Jewelers Organization member and Goodman said he can see that 90 percent of IJO members are down from last year’s profits.

“Some are down as much as 30 percent,” Goodman said. “I thought this year we would be down.”

Yarbrough is singing the same tune.

“Sales have trended down,” Yarbrough said. “But mine have not gone down as much as other parts of the country have, which I think is a great thing to say about the Gulf Coast.”

She said the summer season held strong for BAM, and this summer the Gulf Shores location broke sales figure records. Because of that the store can head into the holiday season without worries

o keep customers coming, BAM has stepped up their publicity with e-mails and mail-outs, and has stirred more interest with book signings and sales.

“We are down from last year’s figures for this time of the year, not substantially, but we are down,” Yarbrough explained. “But we have not been down as much as we anticipated.”