December 27, 2013 at 4:34 p.m.
Holiday shopping season successful for downtown businesses
Holiday shopping season successful for downtown businesses
There are plenty of locally owned shops in downtown Rhinelander that offered great deals on a wide variety of Christmas gifts. Initial reports from the businesses were positive.
Kay Hatch owns Imaginuity specialty toy store on Brown Street. She said this year's holiday season surpassed her expectations.
"We had a great holiday season," she said. "We opened the Rhinelander store this year and it was a new market for us. It did far better than I had even hoped though and our Minocqua store was up slightly too."
The new toy store was very crowded on Black Friday with young customers sampling some of the toys themselves. Hatch said that's part of the appeal.
"I didn't know what to expect because it's a new market for me, but the town was very enthusiastic about the presence of the store," she said. "The timing was right and we had good product selection. The store looks great inside and the staff is very helpful. There was a buzz around town about it and that helped us have the holiday we did."
Another popular destination for downtown holiday shopping in Rhinelander was the Fun Factory Sweet Shoppe. Many shoppers stopped by the popular candy store to pick up something for the sweet tooth on their Christmas list.
Heidi Gray said business was up for them too this year.
"It was a little busier than usual this year, and I think it went very well for us," she said. "People were coming in to get some of our holiday-themed treats and gifts, so that was a lot of fun. It was a big success for us."
On the other side of Brown Street, Mel's Trading Post was another must-stop for holiday shoppers. Their wide range of outdoor and sporting equipment made them very popular just before the holidays.
Blake Carlson said he was a little surprised about this year's shopping trends though.
"It seemed a little busier than last year," he said. "There was more business on the clothing side of the store and less business on the gun side of the store and it's hard to say why. I don't know if it's because of the ammunition scare. Maybe people aren't interested in buying a gun they'll have trouble finding ammo for."
Plenty of other items proved to be very popular this Christmas though. Carlson said there were a few in particular that stood out.
"We sold a ton of the Stormy Kromer hats this year," he said. "Those were big. The neckband/headband/neckband things that you can use however you want were very popular as well and we sold a lot of them. The disc golf stuff was all very popular too. We sold a lot of that stuff and we sold a lot of hockey equipment, everything from sticks to breezers. We sold a little bit of everything from the hockey section."
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.