Holidays benefits Carthage-area businesses

The recent holiday shopping season benefited some local businesses in the Carthage area despite the tight crunch of the economic downturn.

“A lot of people were looking for locally-made and hand-made products,” said Sandra A. Johnson, partner of the Eclectic Boutique on State Street in Carthage. Mrs. Johnson said that November and December were “awesome” for the boutique, especially since the business isn’t even a year old.

“We had a lot of new customers,” she said. “People hadn’t been in before but heard about us and got a chance to come into the shop.”

The boutique, like many businesses in the area, is hoping Valentine’s Day will help perk up the sales that declined after the holidays.

Gray’s Flower Shop is another Carthage business that saw increased business during the holidays but is marketing heavily for Valentine’s Day.

“You can definitely tell the economy is affecting business out there,” said Scott A. Gray, president of Gray’s Flowers Inc. “Our business has peaks and valleys with the holidays. Our objective normally is to narrow the gap between the highs and the lows. With the economy, the peaks are still there, but the valleys are getting deeper.”

Despite a “good” December, Mr. Gray said that this holiday season wasn’t as profitable as past seasons. He said the big challenge of having a shop in Carthage is that many of the big employers have moved out over the years.

“All you have to do is look at the traffic patterns. There’s a heavy flow of traffic out of town in the morning and a heavy flow coming back at night,” he said. “That’s just another challenge we have to deal with.”

Mr. Gray has two other shops, one in Watertown and one in Clayton.

Kathie S. Liberatos, owner with her husband of Porter’s Wines and Liquors, agrees that she’s seen a decline in business due to the economy but said that the holidays were a little better than last year.

“We had a million-dollar lottery in September, and that’s helped a lot,” said Ms. Liberatos. “We’re going forward with the new year, and we’re okay. We’re surviving.”

The store will order whatever customers request and is arranging wine tastings in February to attract more customers. Ms. Liberatos said the tastings were abandoned when the economy crashed, but the decision was made to bring them back again this year.

The new year has some business owners hopeful yet realistic about an economic upswing.

“People are having to make a decision,” Mr. Gray said. “And it’s mainly groceries versus something else, and groceries will win more times than not.”