Valley merchants report steady holiday season

MAT-SU — Shoppers in the Mat-Su Valley were treated to post-Christmas sales of deeply discount items Friday, bringing bargain hunters out en masse.

The rush on stores came as dire news floated out of the Lower 48, reporting dismal holiday sales this year. In the Valley, however, it seems worries about the economy hasn’t affected local business.

The Associated Press reports that data from SpendingPulse, a company that tracks purchases paid for by credit card, shows a downward trend in buying this year. Retails sales fell from 5.5 percent to 8 percent compared to last year.

Interviews with retailers in the Valley seem to conflict with those reports. Most business owners here report strong sales before and after Christmas.

At Sportsman’s Warehouse in Wasilla, manager Steve McVeigh said his store hasn’t been negatively affected by what some — including President George W. Bush — have termed a recession.

“I don’t think we saw a decline,” McVeigh said. “Our customer counts were relatively the same as they were the year before.”

McVeigh said he credits a line of products unavailable anywhere else in the Valley with keeping sales up.

On Friday, as sale-hungry customers walked the isles of his store, McVeigh said even though Sportsman’s Warehouse isn’t offering any additional discounts, business was up.

“We’re having a good day,” he said.

Next door at Target, a big-box store that opened in October, manager Bethany Lyons said holiday discounts were keeping cashiers busy.

“A lot of people are definitely stocking up for the holidays next year,” Lyons said, referring to big discounts on Christmas decorations.

The store was taking an additional 30 percent off anything that was on clearance Friday, creating a run that kept Target’s parking lot full and its registers crowded.

At Radio Shack in the Carrs Shopping Center off the Parks Highway, Becky Lacrosse, an employee, said the store had been slammed before Christmas. By Friday, the crowds had died down a little bit, but Lacrosse said it had been a good holiday season for the electronics outlet.

“We have sold a lot of our stock,” she said.

Patti Dubler, owner of Side Kicks and Gifts in Palmer, said this holiday season was her best year yet. She’s been in business for 13 years.

“I think we all live within our means here,” Dubler said, giving one possible reason the shopping season hasn’t been as hard on Alaska business owners.

For her post-Christmas sale, Dubler was offering 30 percent off Christmas-related items, and had a 50 percent off table in the hallway. Still, even as Alaska retailers appear to be faring better than those in the Lower 48, Dubler said she knows circumstances could change rapidly.

“Maybe by this summer things will start hitting,” she said.