Retail sales down, but spirits up after weekend

Retail sales down, but spirits up after weekend

November 27, 2001

By Janelle Holden
journal staff writer

Traditionally, the biggest shopping day of the year is the day after Thanksgiving. But for Cortez businesses, the busiest day of the year may not arrive until much closer to Christmas.

Sales were down over the weekend by 7 percent from last year, but Kelly Allmon, director of the Cortez Retail Sales Enhancement Program, said that the mostly local buyers this weekend boosted the hopes of area business owners, who had worried the drop would be much sharper because of an economic recession and the events of Sept. 11.

Allmon reported that, everything considered, the beginning weekend of the holiday shopping season went well for area businesses.

"The season started with a bang. The retailers are reporting much-higher-than-expected sales," said Allmon.

"After the tragedy, people were cautious, but what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing is that consumers are not letting that stop them. And of course, the snow kept people shopping locally."

Allmon said the snow boosted local residents’ holiday spirit and didn’t keep out-of-state shoppers from traveling to Cortez. Shoppers from Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico all dropped names in store boxes as part of a business gift-certificate giveaway.

And this weekend’s shopping frenzy may be only a hint of what is to come. A parade of lights, giveaways, and Santa’s workshop on Main Street are planned to jump-start the holiday buying season this Saturday.

Only 10 percent of the holiday sales in the area normally occur during the weekend after Thanksgiving. Allmon said one store reported that the five days before Christmas is its heaviest shopping period.

This season’s holiday advertising and promotional events is the first to come under the direction of the newly established Retail Sales Enhancement Program.

To fund the program, the Cortez City Council passed an ordinance last spring that reduced a portion of the vendor’s fee — the percentage of city sales tax a business keeps for administering the tax.

Prior to the ordinance, Cortez businesses kept 3.33 percent of the city sales tax they charged customers. Currently businesses keep only 1.33 percent — leaving the remaining 2 percent to pool into a fund for advertising and promoting Cortez as a regional trade center.

Sixty percent of the city’s 243 businesses signed a petition in favor of reducing the vendor’s fee before the city passed the ordinance.

"I think we’re looking at focusing on enhancing the image of Cortez as a shopping destination to make it appealing, to the locals as well as the outlying residents," said Allmon.