By David Stone
The Belton Journal
A strained economy has Christmas shoppers hitting the stores early to spread out their shopping budgets, and local businesses say they are benefiting from the longer season.
With only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the holiday season is the shortest it has been since 2019, creating challenges for both consumers and retailers, said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst for retail at eMarketer.
But, this year’s shopping at some local stores started well before Halloween.
“Notably, 45 percent of holiday shoppers started browsing and buying gift items before November,” Canaves said. “That’s up 6 percent from 2019.”
The National Retail Federation agreed, saying early and longer discount timelines could help shoppers who need to spread shopping over a longer time period.
Leila Valchar, who has owned My Giving Tree Gift Shop & Gallery since 2011, said shoppers started making holiday purchases earlier than normal this year.
“People are definitely out,” Valchar said. “It started early — we were having Christmas shoppers in October.”
“We are a well-established business and have a lot of repeat customers,” she said. “We have been having specials, and we have a clearance rack with everything $25 or less. We sell a lot of clothing, including men’s suits.”
Valchar said Black Friday isn’t a big day for many small businesses, but the next day is huge.
“The Saturday after Thanksgiving is Shop Small (also known as Small Business Saturday), and we bring in a lot of local shoppers,” she added. “It’s much better for us than Black Friday — we encourage our customers to support small businesses in Belton.”
Valchar said big sellers this holiday season have been clothing, jewelry and Native American items such as handmade knives and art pieces.
“November is Native American Culture Month, and we have a little bit of a Native American vibe,” she said. “We also have been selling beautiful tiffany-style stained glass lamps and one-of-a-kind gift items that are American made. A lot of our jewelry is locally made.”
Valchar said men traditionally wait until the last minute to shop, but many come in every year.
“We help them find special items for their wife or significant other,” she said.
Valchar’s twin daughters, Jessica Davenport and Jamie Davenport, own a store next to My Giving Tree.
“The two stores connect from the inside so shoppers can go in one and check out the other,” Valchar said. “Their store is called Imeraki, and they sell clothing, jewelry and gifts.”
“We have a lot of sale items for men and women,” Jessica Davenport said. “Right now we have 50 percent off on select clothing, gifts and gadgets.”
Kim Earthman, owner of The Porch Boutique, also had holiday shoppers prior to November. She’s been in business for about 2.5 years, and the business focuses on boutique-style clothing and accessories, as well as custom items and shoes.
“I do a lot of marketing on social media, and I promote local events,” she said. “I’ve done several specials to bring people in — for a week I had 25-percent-off items and some fall specials. I really did it up on Small Business Saturday.”
“That day, if a customer wore pink, they got 25 percent off their purchase,” Earthman said. “We also had special coupons hidden around the store and customers had to find them — like a scavenger hunt.”
“Our biggest sellers have been clothing and small things like pens and potpourri that can be stuffed into stockings,” she said.
Business was slow this past summer at Lindy Lu’s on the Square, but owner Belinda Manzella noticed a big surge in October.
“People would come in and tell me they were already shopping for Christmas,” Manzella said.
Lindy Lu’s is a vendor store, and for-sale items vary greatly from booth to booth.
“Each booth is different,” Manzella added. “You will find homemade items, clothing, a little bit of everything. We are a one-stop shop.”
“We use social media to attract shoppers, and we do things to help our vendors. They are in charge of their prices, and some of them have discounts up to 50 percent off. During Shop Small, we had a giveaway with each $20 purchase.”
“We also have a Backroom Bargain area,” she said. “Customers will find things that vendors need to move. Some of it is seasonal leftover items — we use the room to move merchandise from season to season.”
“We also have a $5 rack, and at any time you will find good stuff on the rack.”
Brett Baggerly of Exchange on Central and The Mercantile said big sellers this year are vintage tree ornaments and holiday decor, as well as unique gift items, home furnishings and retro toys.
“Our vendors have packed their spaces with one-of-a-kind finds that make our stores fun and festive shopping destinations,” Baggerly said.
