As mall-based retailers and discount stores prepare for a frenzied week of last-minute shopping, some independent retailers say the holiday season has been marked by slow sales and near-empty stores.
“I don’t know if it’s because people are going online or to the malls, but there’s almost never a line here,” said Robin Lohre, owner of Talulah Jones and Miss Talulah’s stores in Denver.
While many independent retailers don’t see the same spikes that mark holiday sales for national chains, some Denver-area store owners said they’ve come to rely on the holiday season as a big part of their annual business.
“If it wasn’t for the holidays, I wouldn’t be in business,” said Brad Young, owner of Ricochet, a gift store with locations in Denver’s Old South Gaylord neighborhood and Lakewood’s Belmar shopping district.
Holiday retail sales are expected to climb 6 percent to $439.5 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group.
So far, discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target have been the biggest beneficiaries of holiday spending while mall-based retailers have experienced mixed results.
To get their share of the spending, local owners are extending their hours, e-mailing regular customers, hosting holiday open houses and even serving wine to lift customers’ spirits.
Nonetheless, many shoppers aren’t spending as much this year.
“It hasn’t been anything compared to what it has been in the past,” said Ron Springer, owner of the Akente Express, an African-heritage store in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.
Springer cited rising energy costs, competition from large discounters and shifting neighborhood demographics as cutting into his traditional holiday business.
Springer and other independent retailers typically don’t advertise during the holiday season, instead depending on their regular customers for the bulk of their business. This year, many of those customers are spending more conservatively – if at all.
“I have regular customers telling me they’re not doing a lot of gifts this year because of finances. They’re making smaller purchases, or they’re not exchanging gifts with their families,” said Lohre.
Lohre’s business has been stronger at her Talulah Jones store at 17th Avenue and Park Avenue West in Denver than it has been at Miss Talulah’s in Stapleton.
The Stapleton store has been open a little more than a year.
Young, of Ricochet, said sales are down slightly at his store on Old South Gaylord, where regular customers have told him home heating costs and other expenses have cut into their spending.
Sales at Ricochet were strong after Thanksgiving but slipped in the weeks after.
Business is on the upswing, and Young is confident the trend will continue through the week.
Even at stores where holiday sales have been brisk, owners have observed a change in their customers’ shopping habits.
“Last year, there was just furious buying,” said John Horan, who co-owns the Real Baby store at West 32nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard in northwest Denver with his wife, Hilary. “This year, they’re more calculated. They’re not just buying stuff to buy stuff.”
Horan expects holiday sales at Real Baby to equal or slightly surpass last year’s levels.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
