In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was the primary factor in whether retailers did booming business or saw fewer shoppers in the days after Thanksgiving.
Don Droz, the current manager of Swains, confers with Penny Doane about their sales from the store’s advertising flyer. (Dave Logan / For the Peninsula Daily News)
Sales were higher than usual for businesses that offered the means to enjoy more solitary, recreational or literary pursuits, according to reports from North Olympic Peninsula retailers on the weekend after Thanksgiving, traditionally the start of the holiday shopping season.
Nationally, trends show small decreases in Black Friday and Small Business Saturday sales.
Roughly 186 million shoppers purchased something online or in-store from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, down from 190 million a year ago, the National Retail Federation said Tuesday. Shoppers spent an average of $312, a 14 percent drop from $362 in 2019.
Port Townsend resident Lynette Jennings, left, is checking-out of Quimper Mercantile Co. with help from employee Ronnie Harrell. According to manager Holly Mayshark, Quimper Mercantile saw low sales during Black Friday and Small Business Saturday compared to prior years. (Zach Jablonski/Peninsula Daily News)
“I have talked with a couple of retailers and it really varies from store to store, but I think it was softer for sure,” said Mari Mullen, Port Townsend Main Street Program director.
“It’s not anything like a normal year. There are restrictions in place and I don’t think there was anywhere near the number of people returning to Port Townsend for family dinners. Usually, relatives and friends would come for the weekend and then head downtown the day after Thanksgiving or for Small Business Saturday and the streets and stores would be packed.”
Mullen said she’s still hearing and reading plenty of support for shopping locally during the holidays.
“I think it’s even more so this year. You see that when you follow the conversations on social media,” she said. “They are understanding that the merchants are our neighbors and friends and it’s more important than ever this year to buy local.”
Quimper sales
Quimper Mercantile manager Holly Mayshark said that the Port Townsend store sold less than on typical post-Thanksgiving weekends.
“We closed the store for a time and reopened in June and since then our sales have been very positive. For the most part our sales have equaled the sales of those months [in previous years] until we got to Black Friday,” Mayshark said.
“But Friday, Saturday and Sunday were tremendously down from last year. … Our sales would have made for a good normal weekend, but not a Black Friday weekend.”
Mayshark said the store provides pickup services and will provide local delivery this month inside the Port Townsend city limits.
“We are happy to be your personal shopper,” Mayshark said.
She said she has heard customers mention their intentions to conduct all holiday shopping locally.
“All we can ask is to try us first [before shopping online],” Mayshark said.
And the store offers a locals discount for residents of Clallam, Jefferson and Island counties.
Boom at Ben’s
The pandemic has caused a rise in sales, repairs and other services offered by Ben’s Bikes of Sequim — even in the typically slower months of November and December.
“It’s just boom times,” Ben’s Bike’s co-owner Sam Chandler said. “If I could get more bikes in the shop, we’d be doing even better, but there are problems with the supply chain.
“We are running about 100-percent ahead of sales last year for November and December this year. And these months are not traditionally great times for the bicycle business. Overall, we are up about 35 percent above last year’s business.”
Chandler says sales of new bikes, including popular e-bikes are up, and repairs on older models are through the roof.
“Labor is way up,” Chandler said. “Not only are people buying new bikes, but they are bringing out the old ones from the garage or the barn to get fixed.
“It’s sad to say it takes a horrible medical disaster to help your sales, but there’s not much else to do recreationally. People need the exercise and we’ve had better weather. It’s all leading to more people on bikes.”
Swain’s spreads out
Swain’s General Store manager Don Droz said the Port Angeles store spread out its usual Black Friday-only deals, a coupon discount and a 20-percent discount on gift cards, throughout the post-Thanksgiving weekend.
“We’ve been doing good so far,” Droz said. “The biggest difference is that things are usually concentrated on Black Friday and we made those deals available for Friday, Saturday and last Sunday.”
Droz said Swain’s definitely sold more gift cards and he believed coupon usage and overall merchandise sales were about the same from previous Black Friday specific sales events.
“Spreading the sales through the weekend really seemed to work perfect for us,” Droz said. “It was busy, but we never got to a crazy busy level. Customers didn’t have that urgency to come in on just one day.”
Outfitters sales up
Forks Outfitters didn’t run a large amount of discounts for Black Friday, but still saw growth in weekly sales, according to store manager Dave Gedlund.
“Black Friday or not, with the dynamics of this pandemic, we keep going up [in sales],” Gedlund said. “We had a nice increase going that week, even with a day off for Thanksgiving. People aren’t going out as much, but they are coming here.”
Gedlund said his store was more focused promotions-wise on Saturday’s Customer Appreciation Day sales and the upcoming Countdown to Christmas which offers a different special every day through New Year’s Eve.
Throughout the pandemic, sales in the retailer’s hardware, sporting goods and clothing departments have been phenomenal, Gedlund said.
“Extremely strong sales in sporting goods and fishing gear. They are still going strong and grocery is up quite a bit, too. The whole sporting goods department shows how people are spending their time.”
Community supported
Port Book and News owner Alan Turner provided an upbeat recap of how his downtown Port Angeles bookstore has fared in the early days of the holiday shopping season.
“Without jinxing us, things have been going quite well,” Turner said. “And they have been going quite well on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday for the past three or four years.”
Turner said that Black Friday used to be a detriment to sales at the bookshop, with potential customers eyeing deep discounts at big box retailers.
This year, Turner said the store is seeing increased enthusiasm from local readers and shoppers.
“We seem to be benefiting from a lot of community support that has been caused by COVID,” Turner said. “It’s causing people to reconnect with their community. You would think people would just be shopping online, but in times like this it really does take a village. People seem very appreciative of businesses that are struggling to stay open.”
And he’s hearing shoppers express a shop-local sentiment.
“We are hearing from a lot of people, maybe two or three times a day which you may not think is a lot but it is, that ‘I’m doing all my Christmas shopping locally.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
