Bulletin E-Edition:
How’d the big buying weekend turn out locally?
Nice weather, promotions seem to have perked up shoppers, merchants say
By Cindy Powers / The Bulletin
Published: December 01. 2008 4:00AM PST
more photos
— Ric Nowak, owner of the Country by Design antique store in Redmond; but he said traffic was steady over the weekend
advertisement:
REDMOND — Ric Nowak was less concerned about sales at his antique shop this post-Thanksgiving weekend and more interested in getting folks in the door.
“My best time is after Christmas, when people get their gift money and come out and spend it,” said Nowak, owner of Country by Design on Southwest Sixth Street.
Nowak and other local retailers in Bend and Redmond prepared for a slow shopping weekend. They expected the sour economy to keep people away.
But several said the nice weather seemed to bring folks out to at least window-shop, and on the national level, a preliminary report released Sunday said more shoppers turned out this year than last.
Nowak said a holiday promotion by the Redmond Chamber of Commerce, offering shoppers candy bars wrapped in “Redmond Downtown Dollars” certificates, also helped.
Each certificate, worth $1 to $10, can be spent at nearly 40 retailers in Redmond. The certificates are available for 50 cents on the dollar at the Redmond chamber, at 446 S.W. Seventh St.
Nowak said he took in about $60 in certificates over the weekend, and a lot of visitors said they’d be back with friends or family.
“The expectation of immediate sales is not what I like,” Nowak said. “It’s that people come in, they see what we have and then, when Aunt Sally comes to town, they bring her in.”
Down Seventh Street, at Cent-Wise Sporting Goods, sales clerk Jaidon Caffro said people used the promotional dollars to buy from him as well.
Caffro, 17, has worked at the shop for more than a year and said this weekend was busier than last year at the same time.
The big sellers were weapons like semi-automatic rifles and handguns, Caffro said. He said the store is having a tough time getting more of some models, like AR-15 rifles, from manufacturers.
Buyers are worried, he said, that a ban on some weapons might be reinstated after the new president is sworn in.
By Sunday afternoon, the store only had one AR-15 left in stock.
Despite predictions of slow post-Thanksgiving sales, a preliminary report released Sunday by the National Retail Federation said more folks came out to shop this year than last. And, the report said, they spent more.
The spending data covered Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as projected numbers for Sunday. It showed that more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over the weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.
And the report said shoppers spent an average of $372.57 over the weekend, up 7.2 percent from last year’s $347.55.
At FootZone in downtown Bend, owner Teague Hatfield said he wasn’t expecting a huge shopping weekend and didn’t see the need for promotions like the big-box stores.
“For independent retailers, you’re not going to compete with that,” he said.
Hatfield, who has owned the store on Wall Street for nearly 10 years, said foot traffic was great and credited the balmy weather.
He said most buyers took home the basics, like running shoes, rather than splurging on extras.
Nonetheless, he said sales were at least steady, rather than down, compared with last year.
“But, all in all, I think it was just skippy,” Hatfield said.
Marie-Florence Grayber, owner of Bend lingerie and clothing store Romantique, said Saturday was her busiest day over the weekend.
Many customers who visited the store on Oregon Avenue over the weekend were out-of-towners from larger Northwestern cities, Grayber said.
“I was surprised yesterday, to tell you the truth,” she said Sunday afternoon. “We used to do more business on Friday, before the big-box stores came, but we still do have our regulars.”
Grayber said business has been a bit slow overall, but she is confident holiday shoppers will come out to buy.
“I think people are still going to have Christmas as usual,” she said.
Cindy Powers can be reached at 541-617-7812 or cpowers@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
