Sonoma County retailers roll out deals, new products for holiday shopping season

For more than three weeks, customers have been putting bikes on layaway at the Bike Peddler store on College Avenue in Santa Rosa.

“That’s a little early,” said Jim Keene, one of four partners in the Bike Peddler and its companion store for performance cycling, NorCal Bike Sport. With such a good start, he says he thinks the upcoming holiday retail season will be “fantastic.”

Nearby on College Avenue, customers also are shopping earlier this year at The Toyworks, its owners said. And they seem more willing to make an early purchase rather than continue their search for gifts.

“They see something that they like and they want to get it now,” said Jonathan Goehring, who owns stores in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol with his parents, John and Marilyn Goehring.

Sonoma County merchants are expressing optimism about holiday sales, which kick into high gear this week with the annual Black Friday promotions.

Across the U.S., consumers are expected to boost overall holiday purchases, though the outlook is far from uniform across the retail sector.

Sales for November and December are forecast to increase 3.7 percent to $630.5 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, slightly smaller than last year’s 4.1 percent boost.

The holiday season typically accounts for 20 percent of annual retail sales, and it results in the hiring of more than 700,000 temporary workers in the U.S., according to the retail federation.

This week, the shopping will intensify as hordes of consumers venture forth on Thanksgiving Day and again on Black Friday, the busiest day on the retail calendar. Last year the doorbuster deals and other discounts drew 87 million Black Friday customers to stores and websites, the federation reported.

In Santa Rosa, the two largest shopping malls, Santa Rosa Plaza and Coddingtown Mall, each will open this Thanksgiving day from ?6 p.m. to 1 a.m. and on Friday from ?6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Just like Santa Claus, many local merchants have been preparing for the holiday season for months. For some, that means taking excursions in search of the right gifts.

At The Toyworks, the Goehrings this year went to toy fairs in New York, North Carolina and Nevada. At many events, they are able to meet the hot new toy makers who typically have yet to ramp up toy production to levels that would meet the demands of the nation’s biggest retailers.

“We have the ability to see a lot of toys a year or two years before any of the big boxes see them,” said Marilyn Goehring.

At Sincerely Yours, a stationery, invitation and gift store in Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village, owner Pamela Layton starts planning her holiday purchases the previous January.

Right after Christmas, “it’s all fresh in my mind,” Layton explained. “I know what customers were really enthused about.”

Each year, Layton attends two to three large gift shows to make her selections.

Survey suggests thriftiness

While business is expected to rise this season, U.S. retailers must sell to consumers who have lived through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Even though the recession officially ended six years ago, shoppers today remain more mindful about how spending affects their finances, experts say. And they have come to expect deep discounts.

“People will spend money if they get a deal,” said Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group of Summerville, S.C. “But they want bigger deals.”

His early fall surveys counted significantly more shoppers who plan to give less-expensive gifts this year and who will give them to fewer people.

“I think that bodes pretty poorly for the Christmas season,” Beemer said.

The outlook varies for the nation’s retailers this holiday season. Macy’s raised concerns this month after reporting a sales decline for the previous quarter, a large inventory of unsold goods and an expectation of declining sales at existing stores this fiscal year.

In contrast, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer by sales, on Black Friday “is going to have a great day,” Beemer predicted.

Electronic retailers, meanwhile, will have a hard time raising profits because they will be selling televisions and other big ticket items for less money than last year, he said.

“It’s great for the consumer,” Beemer said, “but it’s lousy for the retailer.”

Hot toys

In Sonoma County, retailers said this holiday season they plan to play to their strengths: Offer unique, quality items and provide customers with expert advice in finding the right gifts.

“They want us to help them narrow it down,” Marilyn Goehring said of shoppers.

Among her popular items this year are the Japanese ball and cup toy, kendama, which is spawning kendama clubs at local high schools; and the 3-D ball in maze game Perplexus, now available in an official Disney “Death Star” version in time for the release of the latest “Star Wars” movie. The creator of Perplexus, Santa Rosa Junior College art instructor Michael McGinnis, will speak and sign his toys at the Santa Rosa Toyworks from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

At Hollingsworth Jewelry in Petaluma, owners Tammy and Mike Hollingsworth say an important part of business has become holiday engagement rings. For the past few years, “we’ve seen it increase for Christmas,” said Tammy Hollingsworth.

And increasingly the young man is bringing in photos posted on his fiancée’s Pinterest account to show her favorite engagement ring styles. It hasn’t replaced bringing along the fiancée’s best girlfriend for advice, she said, but “that’s kind of a new trend people are doing.”

For local retailers, the holiday season has its rhythms. For the Hollingsworths, that includes taking part in downtown Petaluma’s annual Holiday Open House on Dec. 5, an event that precedes the evening’s Holiday Lighted Boat Parade in the Petaluma River Turning Basin.

For Layton at Sincerely Yours, it means joining in the Holiday Stroll at Montgomery Village next Sunday, a day-long event with carolers and other entertainers.

Hardware for the holidays

Even retailers who depend less on Christmas gifts for the bottom line are planning sales during the holiday season.

At Friedman’s Home Improvements, spring and summer are the busier shopping seasons, said CEO Barry Friedman. But fourth-quarter sales have become increasingly important to the business.

As such, Friedman’s four stores will offer Black Friday promotions. The discounted items will include power tools, an important sales category for this time of year, but also some children’s items, including a two-wheel electric scooter.

The regular hardware store shoppers “may grab a gift item while they’re in here,” Friedman said.

At the S.H.E. fashion boutique in downtown Santa Rosa, co-owner Nancy Blasingame said of the holiday season, “It’s not the busiest time of the year because women are shopping for other people and not themselves.”

Even so, S.H.E - which stands for She Has Everything - will hold a customer appreciation sale on Black Friday and the next day, Small Business Saturday.

Business is better this year than last, Blasingame said. And she and business partner Deborah Cali have seen changes in sales categories since they opened the store nine years ago.

Four years of drought and generally warmer winters have reduced sales for heavy coats and sweaters, she said. And the holiday party dress business definitely took a hit during and after the recession.

Today, S.H.E. sells more holiday dresses than in 2009, Blasingame said, “but not like we did in the beginning.”

For the Bike Peddler and NorCal Bike Sport, the holiday season will be “the biggest 30-day stretch we’ll have” this year, said Keene. The Bike Peddler’s sales will focus on bicycles and, if the trend continues, unicycles. NorCal, meanwhile, typically sees a big jump in apparel purchases.

It helps, Keene said, that the region has so many cycling enthusiasts.

“This,” he said, “is a county that’s wild for what we’re selling.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit