Solid sales chalked up by Princeton’s downtown merchants

Warm weather had its advantages and disadvantages

By: Lauren Otis
   This year’s holiday shopping season had a different feel to it, retailers in downtown Princeton said — perhaps because of the unseasonably warm weather — but most managed to record solid sales for November and December, doing at least as well as they did a year ago.
   "It was a different type of year, with a different type of purchases, more me shopping," said Barbara Racich, proprietor of Merrick’s on Moore. Ms. Racich said this year her women’s store did a lot more business in cocktail and party dresses, as well as smaller and "family-type" gifts.
   For sales, "the fall was the best I’ve ever seen, but it didn’t continue," Ms. Racich said. She said, overall her business was about the same as last year.
   Across town, at Go for Baroque on Nassau Street, owner Marilyn Stevens said seasonal business "was good, it was sort of similar to last year." Ms. Stevens said it seemed like the busy holiday shopping season — November and December account for about 40 percent of her sales — started later this year, later in November rather than earlier.
   The nice weather seemed to be offset by difficulties from construction nearby and a lack of parking, according to Ms. Stevens. Despite the late start to the holiday season, she characterized it as "solid" in terms of sales.
   "It’s been very busy, we can’t complain," said Bell Bernotsky, store manager of Zoe on Hulfish Street. Sales have been "about the same as last year," Ms. Bernotsky said.
   Caroline Mitchell, manager of The Papery, also on Hulfish, was in agreement. "We had good foot traffic, our sales went up to what we were expecting. It was very good," she said of the holiday shopping season, which she characterized as "much better than a year ago."
   The good weather contributed to better foot traffic, Ms. Mitchell said, and The Papery, in its fourth year downtown, has benefited from shoppers who are now familiar with it. "Word of mouth is always the best advertising," she said.
   Nearby, at Kitchen Kapers, Manager Hilary Gray took a brief breather from helping a steady stream of customers, to note that the season had been "crazy," in a good way. "Certainly the weather was a big help," Ms. Gray said, also citing a seasonal ad campaign implemented by the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce — its second annual "Holidays in Princeton" initiative — as bringing outside shoppers to downtown Princeton. "I think that was a big help," she said.
   For some, the unseasonably warm weather in November and December, along with increased foot traffic, was a mixed blessing.
   "We were pleased with the season and disappointed with the weather," said Robert Landau, co-owner of Landau’s on Nassau Street. "We like passersby but we like the passersby to be motivated," and without the cold not as many were motivated to make purchases of woolen goods from Landau’s, Mr. Landau said.
   "I actually went back and looked, and on Dec. 23 of last year — it was a cold day — counted how many lambswool scarves from Ireland we sold, and we sold 163 of them, and this year we had a mild day and we sold 48 of them," Mr. Landau said.
   "We are going to come very close to last year’s November, December combined numbers, but we sure didn’t have the buzz that we had last year, from the cold, where we had an extra 100 people in buying sweaters," he said.
   Kathy Morolda, owner of Cranbury Station Gallery on Palmer Square, and president of the Borough Merchants for Princeton, said she had heard nothing but positive things from her fellow merchants. "We’ve been blessed this year because the weather could not have been better for shopping," she said.
   Ms. Morolda, whose gallery has been serving downtown for 12 years, said over time she has noticed dwindling foot traffic during the day, particularly people walking around on their lunch hours, "but this season I just felt it was back to … people were walking and they were shopping."
   Ms. Morolda said she saw many families who were taking a day to visit Princeton and stroll around, and get some shopping done, too.
   Of her own business, Ms. Morolda said, "I did very well, I did better than last year. It was a challenging year on the whole but somebody was watching out for us during the holidays."
   She cited the extra effort Princeton stores will put in for customers that the malls will not, such as wrapping gifts, as a benefit that customers appreciate and will come for.
   Kitchen Kapers’ Ms. Gray also cited this attention as attracting people to Princeton stores even if their prices were a bit higher than at the mall.
   "I think what people like when they shop here is they get the service, we take the boxes out to their car," she said.