A sluggish economy hasn’t brought out the shopping Grinch in consumers this year, according to retailers.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported record sales during last month’s four-day Black Friday shopping window, ending on Cyber Monday. During that time, the NRF said 226 million people visited brick-and-mortar and online stores, an increase of 14 million shoppers from 2010.
On the home front, local retailers have also reported sizable upticks in holiday sales compared to previous years.
“It [The holiday shopping season] has been way better than we predicted,” said Kazoodles Kid-powered Toys owner Mary Sisson.
When asked about the increase in local retail traffic, Sisson said consumers are finally catching on to the importance of supporting locally-owned businesses. She said Small Business Saturday, started two years ago by American Express, has helped in that regard.
“Black Friday was good for us, but Small Business Saturday was incredible and it has just kept growing from there,” she said. “I’ve heard over and over from customers that they’re doing all of their shopping locally this year. This (buy local) message we’ve been putting out there for the last five, six years is finally being received.”
In addition to echoing Sisson’s perspective on ‘local,’ Lisa Sedlar, president and CEO of New Seasons Market, said sales at her company’s new Fisher’s Landing location have been off the charts.
“We’re happy to say we’ve had a great holiday season and we were amazed at how many people in Vancouver ordered their holiday meal and holiday turkey with us,” she said. “We far surpassed what we thought we might do in turkey sales and had to transfer some from other stores to cover the demand.”
Sedlar also noted that bakery sales at the Fisher’s Landing store are the highest in the company.
Jan Teague, president and CEO of the Washington Retail Association, said she expects retail sales to continue to be strong even after Christmas. She said people like to shop for themselves and can often get
the greatest deals after the 25th of December.
