Shopping trends give local retailers hope

MAT-SU — Shopping online is more than just a growing trend, it’s becoming a national habit. Many of those who used to wait in lines for that midnight opening on Black Friday to get the best holiday deals now stay home and log onto their favorite websites instead.

In the Mat-Su Valley, however, the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season — the day after Thanksgiving — still has enough allure to draw out those deal-seeking diehards. On a day when the Wall Street Journal reports that sales online spiked more than 24 percent (on the heals of a more than 39 percent increase on Thanksgiving Day), there were still plenty of shoppers in local stores.

Following some of the worst holiday shopping seasons sales-wise and a shaky economy, there are some hopeful signs for the Valley, said Donny Dean, owner of Image Audio in Wasilla.

Now in its 15th year in business, Image Audio has seen its fair share of holiday seasons, Dean said. While Black Friday this year wasn’t exactly a pack-the-store rush, business was steady.

Coupled with a light snow, “I think everybody’s sleeping right now,” he said late Friday morning. “I think all the hard-core people were up late, and I think the weather’s affecting it a little bit.”

Sales-wise, the WSJ reports that, nationwide, Black Friday sales were relatively strong, pulling in an estimated more than $10 billion. Most, the newspaper reports, were seeking big discounts on big-screen televisions and inexpensive toys.

At Image Audio, the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is critical, like it is for most retailers, Dean said. Typically, the store will do eight or nine times the sales it would on a normal Friday.

In fact, those deals shoppers look for on Black Friday were there a week early for locals.

“Sony started their Black Friday rebates about a week ago, and we’re a big Sony dealer,” he said. “Substantial discounts this week, and they’re huge.”

Unlike the national big-box retailers, independent retailers like Dean don’t normally have those too-good-to-be-true deals, he said. That’s because those chains, like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, usually offer a certain stripped-down model at a ridiculous cost, but will only have five or six in stock for the season.

Electronics have long been a staple of the holiday shopping season, and Dean said on Friday he has noticed a hopeful trend this year. While people are still looking for deals, they’re also willing to spend more for higher quality merchandise.

“The only thing we’re seeing this year is the more expensive televisions are selling more,” he said. “I think the rates at the bottom are over. We don’t bring any (off-brand) models; we actually discount the TVs we sell every day. Other stores bring in stripped-down, third-world models and they only have, like, six per store.”

Some of the 152 million Americans expected to pull out their wallets and credit cards on Friday stopped by another local independent retailer, Fireside Books in Palmer. For small businesses like Fireside, the next month can make or break its year financially, said bookseller Katie Renn.

“It ties everything up at the end of the year, pretty much the whole year is gaining momentum for December,” she said. “December is very, very important for retail, and especially for small business. This is kind of where everything starts.”

It’s an especially shaky time for some in the book business, she said, with the proliferation of e-readers and tablet devices that allow people to read books electronically.

“This have been really iffy for bookstores in general,” she said. “We’ve kind of had a double-whammy, because retail has been slow in general, and for being a bookstore.”

For the most part, Fireside has “been pretty steady, and we’re seeing a lot of our regular faces, and they wish us well,” Renn said. “I don’t know that I’ve seen any particular trends this year, but there’s definitely more people looking for youth books. People love to read and they love books, but they’re also looking for a good deal. Our youth books are half off.”

Something else that helps insulate the Valley from some of the Outside shopping trends is familiarity, she said. The Valley still isn’t so populated that retailers can’t establish personal relationships with their customers.

So, for stores like Digital Audio and Fireside Books, the holiday time is more than make-or-break from a financial standpoint, it’s personal.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.