Jan. 17—The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for many retail businesses. However, local store owners report seeing both ends of the spectrum this Christmas.
"We were really blessed with great holiday business," said Jamie Withrow, owner of Jamie's Secret Garden. "It was better than we expected it to be because the predictions were that sales were actually going to go down. So we are really thankful."
Withrow said her business saw record-breaking sales in 2021 with shoppers finally returning to stores following the pandemic. Therefore, she expected to see sales go down in 2022.
"We were expecting sales to be way lower than last year," Withrow said. "That's what the trade magazines in our industry were predicting, but it did end up being about the same as the year before."
However, Dana Massin, owner of Manic Snail, said her sales still have not returned to pre-pandemic numbers.
"As of 2019, it sort of felt like business came to a screeching halt," Massin said. "Ever since then, it's kind of been a goal of building back to that point. We have not seen numbers even close to that but small incremental growth upward again. This year especially we are starting to see a little bit more growth upward but still not even close to getting back to what it was in 2019 for us."
Massin said she has seen the number of customers and the amount they purchase change significantly over the past few years.
"I know a lot of small businesses who have seen that struggle," Massin said. "It's kind of become this realization that we can't stick to the same types of models and structures that we maybe had pre-pandemic. We've tried some new advertising things to understand how the customers' mindsets have shifted, and that's something I've spent a lot of time on this year."
Massin said she believes the small growth she saw this year is a result of her additional efforts to look into her customers' wants and needs.
"Without keeping my eye on that ball, I don't think the growth would have happened," Massin said. "Even though it's been small and incremental, it's definitely required some extra attention and constant effort to keep people engaged and learn how their shopping patterns change."
Spring is another busy time for home décor shopping, and Withrow is hopeful to see more success.
"March is another really busy season for us and then again in May for Mother's Day," Withrow said. "So we're preparing for that right now. They are saying weather-wise that we're going to have a really hard winter. That makes people want to get out more and see pretty colors and flowers and to bring some of that nature inside their home to lift all those winter blues away."