Retailers Upbeat Entering Holiday Shopping Season
Jacquelyn Gutc
Matthew Evans, vice president of Evans on the Common in Townsend, stands in front of displays of clothing and gifts at his family's 33-year-old store. He said the store's position as a niche retailer has helped it steadily grow.
Retailers in Central Massachusetts look forward to a holiday season worth celebrating, and expect sales that outdo last year's.
“I think it's going to be positive,” said Alan Lavine, sales manager at Percy's TV Appliance Furniture & Bedding in Worcester. He noted that sales began to turn around last year after lagging in 2009 and 2010, and he expects to build on that.
“I think people are a little bit more comfortable, meaning they have jobs and they have been keeping them,” Lavine said. “There's still a lot of challenges for a lot of people, but I think the general mood is just more positive.” He noted improvements in the stock market and unemployment rate as signs that the mood for sales is improving.
The Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM) is surveying its members and expects to release an official outlook this week, but Vice President Bill Rennie said early signs are good.
“We're currently surveying our membership, and based on some of our earlier results, we're cautiously optimistic that we're going to have a good return this holiday season,” he said, predicting sales will be up over last year.
Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation (NRF) has projected that holiday sales will increase 4.1 percent, to $586.1 billion. It's the most optimistic forecast from the NRF since the recession and higher than the 10-year average holiday sales increase of 3.5 percent. The NRF said 2011 sales increased 5.6 percent.
“Variables including … confusion surrounding the 'fiscal cliff' and concern relating to future economic growth could all combine to affect consumers' spending plans, but overall we are optimistic that retailers' promotions will hit the right chord with holiday shoppers,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
Rennie said that, despite month-to-month fluctuations, consumer confidence has been ticking upward. However, he doesn't expect sales to return to pre-recession levels this year.
As much as retailers would like to see consumer confidence bring more shoppers to their stores, some managed to weather the economic downturn thanks to niche offerings and good reputations.
Matthew Evans, vice president of Evans on the Common in Townsend, said sales have risen for almost all of the retailer's 33 years and he expects them to rise about 10 percent over last year from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
“We've been lucky because we've been here a long time and we have the type of stuff that people are kind of seeking out, like better quality stuff that's harder to find, so a lot of our customers drive from an hour (or more away),” he said.
The store stocks high-quality clothing, footwear and gifts mainly from the United States and Europe.
A few miles southwest, in Fitchburg, the story is similar at Elliott's Jewelers.
“Our figures are constantly growing. Even though the economy has been off, we've been ahead,” said owner Anne M. Lawler. A family business founded in 1938, Elliott's handles specialty jewelry work, which she said helped carry it through the recession.
For some retailers, a cold, snowy winter is just what's needed to give them a happy holiday season.
Evans said his store does about 25 percent of its business between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if this winter is mild like last year's, customers will be less inclined to shop for jackets and boots.
Even so, Evans' store posted a 10-percent improvement in sales over the previous year, he said.
For Concrete Wave in Worcester, it was a different story. Owner Brian Hansen said the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas typically accounts for a quarter of his store's sales too, but last year, they were flat, despite a good year overall.
In addition to Mother Nature, Hansen must also compete with online retailers and said many people enter the store to learn about a product, only to buy it online.
“We have to be pretty aggressive discountwise to take that customer and not have them leave the store,” he said.
Rennie said this is one of the challenges many Massachusetts retailers face, as online purchases aren't taxed.
“With Massachusetts, we have two strikes against us. You've got New Hampshire to the north (which doesn't have a sales tax), which we've always had to deal with, and now the growth of online-only sellers and trying to exploit that loophole on sales tax. Retailers really have to be mindful of tax sensitivity of the customer,” he said.
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