Nationally, the holiday shopping season was a lot better in 2009 than the previous year.
According to Reuters, “SpendingPulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors, showed retail sales rose 3.6 percent in the period from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve on Dec. 24.”
Comparatively, in 2008, spending fell 2.3 percent as tracked by SpendingPulse and 2.8 percent as tracked by the National Retail Federation, as the financial crisis led consumers to cut back, Reuters reported.
Though the rise in spending across the nation seems to point to an economic recovery, what’s going on in Charlotte’s retail backyard?
The city’s economic landscape is still reeling from banker layoffs and an unemployment rate in the double digits. But some local retailers said the holiday season gave them reason to hope for a better year.
Busy is how Julie PageSmith, owner of Cottage Chic — a lifestyle store that offers furniture, personalized jewelry and many other things in between — describes the holiday shopping at her store.
PageSmith: “It was a lot better than last year. People were a little bit happier than they were last year. Now compared to years past, it was closer to being on par. Mostly, people bought what they wanted, though still being a little conservative with their price ranges. But, they were also more likely to treat themselves this year. Last year, no one would have thought about buying anything for themselves for the most part. Along with the gift-giving there was still some buying for themselves as well.”
At Rat’s Nest, a Noda-based store that sells vintage clothing, manager (and sister of owner Brian Wilson) Sheila Wilson said her shop made slight gains during the Christmas season.
Wilson: “Since we’re a clothing store, we do get a lot of people looking for presents, and they usually buy more high-dollar items … not just $12 T-shirts. The holiday season is always pretty good for us. This year, people spent about the same, maybe slightly more. We definitely didn’t have a slump. And I was kind of surprised because I was thinking it would be a little slower this year.”
Another clothing store, Black & Blue, which sells denim for men and woman, also saw more traffic during the holidays, according to store manager Christy Ward.
Ward: “We noticed that people’s spending patterns have kind of not so much evolved, but they are not as tight as they were last year, with the economy. People are now buying more things at regular price than they were last year. Last year they were kind of waiting for things to go on sale. But this past holiday season, if they wanted it, they bought it at regular price; they didn’t care. Our profit margin was way better this past year.”
Over at Beadlush, a crafting retail shop, owner Lydia Stern said the holiday season didn’t start as early as she expected but still turned out well.
Stern: “We did pretty well after Black Friday; people got into it later than usual. But we did pretty well. With crafting, sometimes October will be our best month because people who are making things need to start a little earlier. Toward the end [of the holiday season], we sell a lot of gift cards and things of that nature. That’s always good as well. You always hope December is going to help dig you out a little bit. [2009] really wasn’t as terrible as I was thinking it was going to be. Some months that I was expecting not to do well, I did better than expected. And then there were other months when I thought I would do great, and I did worse than expected. I’ve been lowering my expenses for a while so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could be.”
At the clothing and sneaker boutique Niche, however, owner Bobby Webster said the holiday season for his business wasn’t great.
Webster: “It was about the same as last year for us, I guess. And in saying that, it’s kind of odd. We’re not like mall stores because we don’t get people coming here to buy gifts for others. It’s mostly people buying for themselves. So it was mostly like last year, the week leading up to Christmas was really good and that was about all of the holiday business actually. Then we did a big sale the week after Christmas, through New Year’s and that was really good — probably better than before Christmas. Those two weeks were the only holiday business we had. The rest of the month actually started off pretty poor, to be honest.”
The holiday season, good or bad, leaves many of the local shopkeepers cautiously optimistic for 2010.
Stern said: “I think this year is going to be better. People will still be crafting and possibly even more because they are still going to be watching their pennies. But, people are starting to loosen up a little bit.”
Ward said: “We have a lot of customers who will only shop locally — just because they know that we’re a smaller store, and we have a lot of unique things that you can’t find at mainstream retailers. In the new year, I think people are feeling more refreshed now … and they are looking for what’s in style, and they are ready for a change in the economy — and they don’t care about spending the money anymore.”
Wilson said: “I don’t know if consumers will be spending more, but I think they will be spending a little smarter. People are going to go a little more for quality and things of that nature than something that’s just in fashion … I think with having to think about each purchase now, they are going to be more cost-concerned. A lot of people are saying that they want to come and support Charlotte because we were hit hard with the banking crisis, so people are looking to buy more locally so that Charlotte can have more of a diverse economy.”
Webster, who is a bit more cautious than optimistic, said: “I think [business] can only go up from this point, but with everything happening in the world, who’s to say? There is a core group of customers that we have who always try to check with us first, but overall, people are still in the mentality that they are going to go where the best deal is.”
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2010.
