Business owners report steady holiday shopping season

With the plethora of online opportunities folks have during the year to get all of their Christmas shopping done early, its nice to find out that our local businesses all appear to have had a good shopping season, too.

WOW Discount said they had a pretty good shopping season, although not an outstanding year. The things that sold the most coming up to Christmas was crafting items that grandparents came in to get to keep the grandkids busy during their visit.

Down the Street at Owl Creek Graphics, Dan Herdt said they were satisfied with how things went. They had a better Black Friday and Shop Small Saturday than they had had in years and really appreciate their local customers.

Herdt indicated November was a really good month for them, while December was a little slow, so he figures folks got their shopping done early.

Thermopolis Hardware had a good holiday shopping season, too. Dennis Sinclair said they had a lot of people who said they came out there to shop because of the unique variety of gifts they have and for the outstanding customer service.

At Nature’s Corner it appeared to be a good season, too, especially the last five to seven days leading up to Christmas. They have such a wide variety of items for sale shoppers were able to find what they needed.

Sarah Ferrell, owner of Nature’s Corner, said the thing that seemed to fly off the shelves this year was salt lamps. She also added that she really appreciates the local customers coming in and getting their gifts, too.

Ellen Reed of Storyteller said sales were pretty “neck and neck” compared to last year’s. She noted there wasn’t much difference in the items purchased, as the business only sells certain types of things. There was increased foot traffic, Reed said, and she was surprised to see a lot of people from Riverton and Lander coming in to shop.

Having a new business, Howie Samelson of Thermopolis Print Zone and Copy Shop said he has nothing to compare sales the Christmas to last year’s. He was surprised with the number of orders he received for custom cards and Christmas newsletters, as well as other custom projects.

In the same building at Thermopolis Print Zone is the Gooseberry Garden Quilt Shop, which recently moved into the Broadway location. Susan Turnbull felt the shopping season was pretty positive, bu attributed much of that to the increase in foot traffic at the new location. Taking a brief glance at sales, she estimated the shop was running ahead about 30 percent compared to last year.

Samelson and Turnbull added the holiday promotions around town seemed to help the shopping season.

Janelle Nesky with S Squared Designs said the shopping season went well. Though things were a bit slower with fewer custom orders, the business still sold a lot of knick knacks. Nesky expressed her appreciation to everyone who shopped local and kept money in the community.