
{"id":8468,"date":"2009-12-31T13:59:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T21:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=8468"},"modified":"2009-12-31T13:59:33","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T21:59:33","slug":"local-retailers-offer-mixed-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/12\/31\/local-retailers-offer-mixed-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Local retailers offer mixed report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Beth Mechum, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Local merchants worry about how lingering concerns over the economy, including continued high unemployment, will play out in this holiday shopping season.<\/p>\n<p>After a down year last year, the merchants were upbeat about a rebound. So far, a surge of shoppers hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t materialized and results are likely to be mixed. Still, many shopkeepers are encouraged by an apparent uptick in interest and energy even if that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t translated into sales.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>At Nested, a home-and-gift gallery located in downtown Carrboro,  Owner Jenny McMillan, who helped lead the charge for the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent Buy Local week, said she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see a dramatic increase in sales from the effort, but adds that a big jump wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the point.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In my store, all week long, I featured different vendors that I buy from in the area, so people knew which products I had that were locally made,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope that is something we do every year, and that we get all stores onboard, and that it becomes a real celebration in the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>As for the season in general, McMillan said she was pleased.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always going to be busy in December, and this year is no different.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Kara LeFleur, a manager at Roulette, said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s noticed a little drop-off in shopping this year compared to years past, but she attributes some of it to how late Thanksgiving and Black Friday were.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christmas kind of snuck up on people this year, and I think people are a lot more careful with their money,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>LeFleur said she saw a lot of browsers, many of whom didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn into buyers. Roulette had increased hours and was open more days than usual to facilitate as much holiday shopping time as possible.<\/p>\n<p>At Kitchenworks in University Mall, manager Martha Jenkins said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been pleased with the season, especially given the times.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re rocking and rolling,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This year people have been really good. They are not holding back like you would think in the recession. I think people feel better about spending money.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nJenkins also expressed the importance of buying local.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People are just happy with us this year, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re happy with them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We just want people to know how much a difference it makes to shop local.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>One shop benefiting from the recent burst of winter weather is the Great Outdoor Provision Company at Eastgate, where warm socks and gloves have seen rising demand. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going great here, considering hard economic times, as we keep hearing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d store manager Ann Stuntz said. This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hot selling item, she said, is Vibram FiveFingers, a shoe that fits like a glove. <\/p>\n<p>Stuntz said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably been the second-best year in terms of holiday sales in the five years the store has been open, though you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell it from foot traffic alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The amount of traffic has been reduced \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 so it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t felt quite as harried. But people are spending money.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Beth Mechum, Staff Writer Local merchants worry about how lingering concerns over the economy, including continued high unemployment, will play out in this holiday shopping season. After a down year last year, the merchants were upbeat about a rebound. So far, a surge of shoppers hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t materialized and results are likely to be mixed&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8470,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8468\/revisions\/8470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}