“Charge it” is no longer a rallying cry for Clark County holiday shoppers, who seem to prefer debit cards over credit cards to make their final gift purchases this week.
However, local merchants say it feels like sales are up from last year’s dismal selling season, which was hammered by a bad snowstorm and economic decline. While store managers were keeping their actual sales figures under wraps, the recurring theme that things are better than last year keeps coming up.
Credit card payments are out in favor of debit or check-card payments, said Cheri Perry, president of Vancouver-based Total Merchant Concepts Inc., which assists businesses in accepting plastic as payment.
Perry said shoppers are still using credit cards, but they just aren’t using the kind that comes with monthly payments, interest and finance charges.
“It looks like people are trying to spend within their means. They are accessing funds from their checking accounts and definitely not maxing out their credit cards,” Perry said.
The trend was a little disappointing to local retailers who depend on all-out holiday spending.
“A lot of people I’ve talked to said they were kind of cutting back on spending,” said Lulu Suchinda, owner of Lulu’s Boutique, which she opened in Battle Ground this year.
“People are being a little more price-conscious,” which could set her new retail business scrambling through the rest of the year.
But other merchants said they were selling a lot more electronic gewgaws and gadgets this year.
“Video games and computer games, iPods, TVs of all sizes and the mechanical (Zhu Zhu Pets) hamster. Those things are flying off the shelves,” said Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for Portland-based Fred Meyer stores.
She agreed that customers have been trying to stretch their dollars this year by redeeming store coupons and following store ads. Merrill also said she has sensed a more lighthearted and hopeful mood among shoppers at the seven Fred Meyer stores in Clark County.
“Everybody is trying really hard to bust out of this groove and enjoy the holiday,” Merrill said.
Sticking to their lists
More shoppers at Westfield Vancouver mall were sticking to lists, buying gift cards and paying with cash or debit cards instead of credit, said Jessica Curtis, a mall spokeswoman.
She also suspects more advertising dollars have been spent by the mall’s 127 stores and kiosks this year.
“It feels like more ads and a lot more promotions,” Curtis said, adding that mall anchor store Macy’s appeared to be drawing more customers this year.
Some smaller merchants said their customers are trying to avoid the mall crowds this year.
“They want to grab what they need and go,” said Dawn Stanchfield, owner of Lily Atelier and Luxe Shoes women’s boutiques in Camas.
She estimated her store sales are up by between 15 percent and 20 percent this December, compared to the same month last year.
“Part of it is that we lost a lot with the snowstorm last year,” Stanchfield said.
The pre-holiday snow combined with a global financial meltdown to deliver a one-two punch to local stores that count on holiday sales as a large share of their business.
“Last year was a bummer,” so bad that her Vancouver music store has written the entire episode out of its history, said Gayle Beacock, co-owner of Beacock’s Music in Vancouver.
Instead of pitting store sales goals against the same period in 2008, “we compared them to our biggest December ever, in 2007,” said Beacock, who estimated that this year’s monthly store sales are 45 percent above the same period in 2007.
“We’re feeling really optimistic,” Beacock said.
Downtown Vancouver gift shop Rainy Creek has added more individual gift items to the shelves this year and staff have gone out of their way to provide customers service, said Julieanne Grader, store associate.
She anticipates improvements in overall store sales, significantly over last year’s figures.
“We really have built up a clientele and established relationships with the people downtown,” Grader said. “I think people are more positive this year than last. I just think there’s more hope.”
