PORT TOWNSEND — Merchants preparing for the holiday season are viewing the next few weeks as a periodic spike on the Port Townsend retail roller coaster.
“Once you’ve been here awhile, you get used to the ebb and flow here,” said Heather Pollock, who has run Conservatory Coastal Home, 639 Water St., for four years.
“It’s busy in the summer and December but slow in the winter, early spring and fall. You can’t expect it to be the same every month.”
Merchants spoke the day before Santa arrived on the Kiwanis Choo Choo just before the community tree-lighting ceremony Saturday.
The afternoon before the ceremony featured caroling with the Wild Rose Chorale while many stores served refreshments and extended hours.
Gearing up for the holidays, the Port Townsend Main Street program has formed a partnership with about 35 businesses for a Look Here First campaign meant to encourage shoppers to attempt to fill their shopping list from local merchants before going online or out of town.
“When you commit to keeping your money circulating here, you are contributing to the health of your own community and its economy,” said Mari Mullen, Main Street executive director.
“We invite people to look here first, show your local loyalty, which in turn is a gift to Port Townsend.”
Main Street board president Xoe Huffman — who recently moved her business, Daily Bird Pottery, from downtown to a larger space at 2009 Fourth St., near the Thomas Street roundabout — believes uptown and downtown merchants offer versatility and variety.
“The downtown and uptown areas offer the largest concentration of places where you can get gifts that are special to Port Townsend,” she said.
“If you are mailing gifts from here to other locations across the country, you will want to send something that is unique to our area.”
Daily Bird sacrificed a good location for a business boost: It now has a 2600-square-foot space that includes a production facility.
As the business grows, it has drawn corporate and mail order clients that were hard to service from an 850-square-foot shop, even if it was strategically placed.
Gail Boulter, who owns six downtown stores — The Green Eyeshade, Northwest Man, Fancy Feathers, What’s Cooking, the Clothes Horse and its adjacent shoe store — said she expects a busy December, but not as busy as August.
August our Christmas
“August is our Christmas if you are talking dollars,” she said.
“We get a lot of visitors, which allows us to build a larger inventory. If it was only locals, we wouldn’t be able to offer as much.”
Boulter said the entire month of December is good, “but not off the charts,” with business accelerating during the two weeks before Christmas.
This is also true at Quimper Sound in the Undertown, according to owner Mark Hering.
“People wait until the very last minute,” he said.
“They tend to buy new records by new artists or new reissues because you don’t want to give someone a used record for Christmas.”
Hering said his store gets an additional boost in April for Record Store Day, which he characterizes as “another Christmas for us.”
The largest store downtown is Quimper Mercantile, which is in a unique position, according to manager Sheldon Spencer.
“As a general merchandise store in a small town, we run the entire gamut,” he said.
“We accommodate people who get off of a yacht and have lots of money to those who are just scraping by.”
Spencer said the most popular gift items are accessories: socks, hats and gloves that are not size-specific.
Hats, Spencer said, can range from $4 to more than $40.
“If your goal is to be the cheapest, you can just forget about it,” he said.
“We have good prices but don’t plan to be the cheapest. That’s not who we are.”
At Piccadilly Bob’s Good Time Boutique, 911 Water St., Deborah Olsen said the flavor has changed since she last worked downtown 10 years ago at the now-closed Quilter’s Cove.
“It feels different now,” she said.
“There are more people flowing up and down the streets and more people who come here from somewhere else for a day trip or an outing.”
‘Better every year’
Pollock, who opened her shop at the end of the recession, said her holiday receipts “get better every year,” adding that during this time, small gift items are the most popular.
Huffman said one advantage of her new location is more parking, although her downtown customers had to walk only a few blocks, a far shorter distance than in other towns.
“People who come here from other places enjoy coming downtown,” Boulter said.
“I get people from Silverdale who come up here because they can find a parking space.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
