Valley Junction Merchants Gearing Up for All-Important Holiday Shopping Season

Mary Jane Long puts it simply: Shop local businesses for the holiday season, or watch them go away.

“It’s huge,” Long, owner of Eyebeads & Gemstones at 214 Fifth St., said of the upcoming holiday shopping season. The store offers a variety of precious and semi-precious stones, as well as custom-made jewelry, handcrafted jewelry boxes and African art.

“If you don’t support local business, it’s not going to be around,” Long said.

She said walk-in traffic is vital to the success of her business and others along Fifth Street, Valley Junction’s main drag. Merchants throughout the destination West Des Moines shopping district are preparing for an influx of customers on Black Friday and throughout the holiday shopping season.

Deb Fix, owner of Atherton House, a gift boutique at 228 Fifth St. featuring Old World crafts and other unique gifts, is optimistic that her store will be teeming with buyers throughout the first holiday season in Valley Junction. The store previously was located in Adel, where traffic was sporadic.

Fix is adding employees to handle what she hopes will be more brisk traffic in the popular shopping destination, and has scheduled open houses throughout the week of Dec. 1-4 to introduce shoppers to her store.

The Historic Valley Junction Foundation’s three themed open houses bring hundreds of visitors to the shopping district to take free horse-drawn carriage rides, stroll streets twinkling with lights while listening to carolers and sipping hot chocolate, and participate in other longtime traditions.

Jim Miller, the foundation’s director, said events throughout the spring, summer and fall bring visitors to Valley Junction, “but this time of year they’re more likely to buy.”

“November and December are huge,” he said. “Certainly for most retailers, fourth-quarter sales (equal) one-half of the year or more.”

The question on merchants' minds is, will they be in a mood for buying?

“It’s a pretty wide mix among our stores,” Miller said. “2011 has been a record year for some, but on the other hand, very difficult for others. Three-fouths of them fall somewhere in between.

“Things have changed some, but it’s still a pretty darned challenging economy,” he said.

National retail forecast points to increase
In its forecast released in October, the National Retail Federation said the 2011 holiday season should be a little better than average on the heels of a 2010 season that outperformed analysts’ expectations.

The federation said holiday retail sales are expected to increase 2.8 percent to $465.6 billion. Last year, holiday sales were 5.2 percent higher than during the same period in 2009.

For some merchants, holiday sales make up between 25 percent and 40 percent of their annual sales, according to the NRF. In 2010, holiday sales were about 19.4 percent of total retail industry sales, the organization said.