PATERSON - Despite frosty temperatures on Black Friday, residents flocked to stores on Main Street downtown.

They bought socks. They bought baby clothes. Winter hats and gloves. Underwear. They bought for friends, for family and for themselves. They bought because it was the holidays and because they just wanted to.

And the shopping downtown was, for the most part, good for what is considered the busiest day in terms of customer traffic, even though there is no anchor to attract buyers - no Gap, no Target, no T.J. Maxx. In fact, the one proposed engine for downtown revitalization, Center City, a commercial and entertainment complex, still doesn't exist more than three years after it was announced.

"I just walked out of Foot Locker with two pairs of boots for $30 - name-brand boots," said Jay Muniz, a Paterson resident carrying a bulging plastic bag. He said he bargained with the clerk at Foot Locker for the FUBU-brand boots. "You couldn't do that at the mall."

At Kid's Palace, the largest retailer of children's clothes and furniture in North Jersey, business was brisk, according to Michael Steiner, the store's vice president. Two weeks ago, the 25-year-old store expanded its clothing section to a second floor, he said.

"Business has been getting better every year," Steiner said, but only agreed to disclose that sales have increased 10 percent year over year.

Javier Rodriguez, 35, said he brings his family to Kid's Palace every year after Thanksgiving. "The mall doesn't have good specials at this time," the Chester resident said as his wife and 5-year-old daughter perused a rack of pink coats. He said price is the reason they shop there. "In the mall, something will cost $80 at Macy's," he said. "Here it's $40 or less."

But other customers and shop owners weren't so bullish.

Migdalia Millet, 33, said she went holiday shopping for toys at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne instead of downtown. "It's not a bargain," she said of shopping in Paterson.

A Paterson resident, Millet said she was buying work clothes for her boyfriend.

Jose Cardona, 33, said much the same thing. "Some stores, some prices, are all right," he said. But, he argued, "for being Black Friday, it's too expensive." He was buying clothes for himself, he said.

A clerk who declined to give her name at a nearby shoe store, La Isla, said business was "very, very slow" and Lucero Rodriguez, 19, a clerk at Today's Fashion for Men across the street reported that business was spotty. Hardly any shoppers roamed those stores.

Business community leaders expected Black Friday to be favorable for shopping in downtown, even though Center City hasn't been built.

Sheri Freeman, director of the Downtown Paterson Special Improvement District, said Main Street's viability isn't dependent on Center City. "In the long run, Center City is going to be good for downtown," she said recently.

But she said when construction begins on the complex, it will be difficult to find parking, because several buildings downtown will be demolished to build it.

Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce President Jamie Dykes agreed that Center City would benefit downtown, but said Paterson is doing fine without it.

"Main Street has existed without a major anchor," he said. "It is thriving."