Local Retailers Cautiously Optimistic as They Ring in the New Year

 For a number of retailers in Garden City, holiday 2010 garnered mixed reviews.

The Pear Tree Shoppe, a high-end gift boutique that offers unique and reasonably priced items from fashion accessories to Herend figures and home décor merchandise, noticed sales were slightly down when compared to 2009.

“I think there is still a lot of caution out there. People are not buying as liberally for themselves as they have in the past. They are thinking more about their purchases,” said co-owner Lois Tighe, whose store is still selling holiday merchandise.

“The Pear Tree turns into a Christmas store in November and we keep our inventory out until January 12th. Christmas and holiday items are discounted ‘at’ 40 percent, which is a great value to the buyer.”

Marianna Wierbicki of Garden City is one of those post-holiday shoppers taking advantage of the great buys. A decorative cheese knife that was originally priced at $17 and is now 40 percent off was one item that caught her eye. “The Pear Tree has some unique items. I like to shop here for myself and for gifts,” she said.

Wierbicki has been so excited with all of the great discounts that today was her second visit to the store this week. “I was here two days ago. I bought a beautiful plate that was made in Italy. I also bought placement cards and some Christmas ornaments,” she said.

With 2011 in full swing, Tighe is busy gearing up for the next big holiday: Easter. “We are going to the shows and looking for new things, new product lines for home décor and gift giving. The economic environment is still scary. If you have a job, you are concerned whether you are going to maintain it, so the economy is eroding consumer’s confidence.” Tighe added, “We are cautiously optimistic.”

According to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales, the 2010 holiday shopping season between Nov. 5 through Dec. 24 showed overall growth of 5.5 percent total U.S. retail, excluding automobile sales, as consumer spending continued to show progress compared to the same period in 2009.

“If last year’s holiday story was about gaining some stability, this year’s is about getting back to growth. The 2010 holiday period is categorized by strong year-over-year growth in apparel and continued strength in eCommerce. We also saw a noticeable return in spending in the larger ticket items, as exemplified by the solid growth in jewelry, luxury and even the furniture category,” says Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis for SpendingPulse, on its website.

For Joseph Tripodi, owner of Joseph & Joseph, a specialty men’s store on Seventh Street, holiday sales were up 15 percent compared to 2009. “It was overall satisfactory. I think I did what I expected to do,” he said.

His big seller for the holiday and fall season included half-zip pullover sweaters that retail between $149 and $195. “It can be either casual or dressy. It is the new sweater to layer. Some people also put it under a sports coat, which looks really nice,” said Tripodi.

Moving forward, Tripodi is planning to do more quantity-type discounting so his clients feel that they are getting a better deal.

“In a better specialty store environment it is hard to be that promotional. You can’t give it away or give the image that you are giving it away so you have to do it on a quantity-type basis because you are not going to do the volume of a Joseph Banks or these other 'big box' stores.” Tripodi adds, “You have to do it where the customer tries to help you and you try and help them at the same time.”

The boost in holiday sales has already given Tripodi a jump-start for the new year. “I think we are on the uptrend and 2011 should be reasonably closer to normal," he said.