ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701060018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Big store or small, downtown specialty shop or discount warehouse, Christmas sales were up across the New River Valley this year.
Across the country some early retail reports showed flat sales, but New River Valley store managers and owners reported long lines, full parking lots and empty shelves.
The strong national economy, the fact that Christmas fell on a Wednesday, the recent mild weather, aggressive marketing and other factors may have contributed to many local stores reporting double-digit increases over last year's sales. Still, store operators conceded, retailing and the reasons behind a booming sales season remain somewhat of a mystery to them.
As Bruce Wessel, manager at J.C. Penney at the New River Valley Mall, put it: retailing "is not rocket science."
Successful sellers need to be "part weather man and part palm reader," he said. Even so, predicting the whims of consumers can be a hit-or-miss affair.
Christmas sales at Penney's were "sort of a cliffhanger" until the final weekend, when customers came out in droves, helped in part by convenient temperatures. The two business days before the holiday also made shopping easier for last-minute gift-buyers, Wessel said.
The Christmas shopping season traditionally starts after Thanksgiving, which came a week late this year. That translated into a slow start followed by longer, busier days as Dec. 25 drew near, many area store operators said.
Last year at the mall "was just a pitiful, pitiful year," said mall manager Mike Poldiak. This year "it looks like we've got some really nice gains." Mallwide, he estimated the sales increase this year was about 8 percent.
The reason, he said, could be the result of a new mix of stores in the mall and the cyclical nature of retail spending. That cycle is tied, he thinks, to presidential elections. The trend last year was to buy big-ticket items like large appliances or computers. This year it seemed shoppers bought more personal items like clothing, he said.
The perception that the economy is steady may have led people to spend more, Poldiak said.
"Everybody, I guess, is feeling fairly comfortable. In previous years there was some uncertainty," prompting people to save, he said.
"People were in a better mood, and they bought things they really wanted. It's going to turn out to be a profitable season," Wessel said. His store saw a double-digit increase over last year's numbers, despite fewer sales and the difficulty in hiring help, a sign of a strong economy. Another economic indicator is this year's drop in post-Christmas returns, he said.
Customers left shelves bare at Bath & Body Works in the mall, a recently opened store that sells specialty personal items. "The week of Christmas we were sold out of everything," said store manager Ruth Hollister, who said sales were up but would not release figures, citing company policy. "One Saturday there was a point in time when you couldn't walk in the store there were so many people."
Across Peppers Ferry Road at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, "sales were better than anticipated," said manger Herb Conley, despite no special Christmas sales or advertising.
The novelty of such a large store is beginning to wear off since its spring opening, and customers are starting to appreciate it for such things as its wider aisles, he said. An early Christmas gift for him were few complaints about traffic.
Nearby at Kmart, sales were also up 5 percent to 10 percent, said manager Bob Schafer, perhaps because of aggressive corporate-wide sales and advertising, including a Christmas clearance sale that ran before the holiday.
Customers bought toys, kitchen items, music and video selections, and other basics.
"The last three days they were in here buying whatever they could get. That's the way it is every year."
While the mall area did well, downtowns were not left behind.
Sales at the Booksmith, a new bookstore in downtown Blacksburg, tripled from November to December, said owner Peggy Smith.
She said lots of first-time customers stopped by. "Quite a few people said they wanted to keep their dollars downtown," adding that since opening in May "business has just continued to grow steadily."
At Radford's downtown Encore store, which sells arts, crafts, specialty items, jewelry and ornaments, owner Carolee Bondurant said sales were up 10 percent to 12 percent. "I think everybody had more money to spend this year," she said, and "People were looking for something different."
Debbie Jonas, owner of Colony of Virginia in downtown Pulaski, which offers antiques and collectibles, said good prices and quality bring people to her store, but this year she noticed "a positive outlook" in her shoppers. "I've seen a lot of happier customers this year. I feel like they feel a little more secure than they have in years past, and I gauge it by the use of charge cards."
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Mike Poldiak (left), New River Valleyby CNBMall manager, and JC Penney store manager Bruce Wessel are happy
with the mall's 8 percent sales increase over last season. color.