Holiday shopping season is in full swing, Sonoma County businesses seeing lag in sales

The holiday shopping season is in full swing as consumers continue their race to the register while combating inflation and rising prices on such daily items as groceries.

Small businesses in Sonoma County contacted by The Press Democrat are seeing mixed results when it comes to sales this holiday season, with some enjoying similar year-over-year turnouts while others are seeing a significant lack in customers.

A National Retail Federation, the nation’s most prominent trade organization for stores and boutiques, found that consumers want to shop in person again and are likely hitting the brick-and-mortar stores more than purchasing online.

Local retailers say they’re seeing more customers shopping in store rather than online.

The Press Democrat reached out to a few of them to see how their shopping season is going so far. Here’s what they had to say:

falling for dainty, 240 Center St., Healdsburg

fallingfordainty.com

Brooke Gabrielian opened her jewelry store in downtown Healdsburg in November after conducting her business inquiries online and at craft fairs and markets throughout the county.

Since opening, she said business has been doing well, with many of her loyal online customers popping in to her shop to see her in-person.

For the holiday season in 2021, Gabrielian had just started doing art markets again after COVID. Business was doing well, but she was still figuring out which markets were best for her to set up shop at.

“Previously, I had a lot more online sales, but now that we have the shop, people love to come in to the store to touch and feel everything,” she said. “A lot of loyal customers I had that would buy online will buy online and pick it up in store.”

Gabrielian said many of her Sonoma County customers have come in to the store rather than buying online, however, her online sales are still popular for customers living outside of the county and California.

She saw a great turnout for Black Friday and, after a small lull after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, business is ramping back up.

“I’m expecting to be very busy,” she said. “It slowed a little bit down after Black Friday because everyone wants to get a sale but it’s starting to pick back up.

Journey of the Saber, 1071 Santa Rosa Plaza

facebook.com/JourneyofTheSaber

Last year was the first year that Teryn Kelley was in his storefront in Santa Rosa plaza, teaching lightsaber wielding classes and helping shoppers look for their perfect lightsaber for the holidays.

“I was expecting business to be like last year to have a lot of sales and class sign-ups and stuff like that, but I got nothing (on Black Friday),” he said.

“I was chatting with associates that work for Apple and stuff that people were shopping for deals on clothes but nothing else.”

Kelley said he was surprised at the low turnout at his shop for the holiday season so far, especially because he can ship online sales across the country and his 25% off discount is better than the 15% off he offered last year.

But December sales have been the same as they were on Thanksgiving weekend.

“I’m advertising a lot more on social media,” he said. “I’m just crossing my fingers, and I just want to customize through the season and hopefully people will come around to it.”

Nichibei Potters, 1991 Burnside Road, Sebastopol

nichibeipotters.com

Cheryl Constantini and her husband, Mikio Matsumoto, run a pottery business out of a showroom studio on Burnside Road in Sebastopol. She said the 2021 holiday season was booming with many sales online through their Etsy shop.

This year, she said, sales have been much slower. Though they continue to do well from people coming in to the studio to purchase, the turnout just hasn’t been the same so far.

“My feeling is that maybe people want to be out in the world and maybe they’re tired of sitting in front of their screens,” she said.

“ (Last year) we were spending a lot of time managing online sales, it was explosive … but that’s what we haven’t seen this year.”

Constantini said that though online sales are down and sales overall have been a bit slower this year, they’ve had more customers start coming into the studio, even customers from out of state that purchased items online.

She said one woman flew from Minnesota for a convention and paid for a $250 Uber to see the studio in person.

“People want to take advantage of getting out and seeing people so we kind of expected this,” she said. “We’ve found over the years that if they want to come (shop) early, they can, but waiting a little later encourages those last-minute sales.”

Trace & Jess, 9061 Windsor Road, Windsor

traceandjess.com

Jessica Foell runs two small clothing businesses — Trace & Jess and Let it Fly Apparel — in Windsor with her mom, Trace, that they opened in 2020 and 2021.

Their boutiques, just a few storefronts away from each other, saw incredible business last year despite onset effects of the pandemic. But Foell said they have yet to see those holiday crowds.

“We’ve been waiting for December because I’m wondering when the holiday rush is going to happen,” she said.

“I’ve been talking to other people, and it sounds like it’s been a little slow for them, at least in the season leading up to the holidays. So, I think we’re really excited that December is here and people hopefully will be out and about shopping.”

Foell believes that consumers are putting off purchases until closer to Christmas and hopes that sales will pick up as Dec. 25 gets closer.

She said both shops saw great support from local businesses during Black Friday weekend, with Let It Fly having 20% off merchandise and Trace & Jess providing a gifted purchase, where everyone who shopped also received a decorative holiday sign and chocolate.

“I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but people loved it and it worked for us,” Foell said. “(Black Friday) weekend was huge for us so that gave me some hope that this holiday season will be good.”

DaVero Winery, 766 Westside Road, Healdsburg

davero.com

The Healdsburg winery began by making olive oil and opened its tasting room for wine in 2005.

Spokesperson Barbara Fitzgerald said the winery has also compiled gift sets of local goods like the winery’s olive oil, wine and locally made preserves for almost nine years to bring in customers who don’t drink wine.

She said the winery was worried about consumer turnout this holiday season because of rising prices, but the turnout has been decent.

“Our numbers are ahead of where we were last year by about 10% right now,” Fitzgerald said. “The average order value is not different from last year at all, and people are really spending the same amount.”

Fitzgerald said in previous years, when the winery would send out marketing emails, there would be between $4,000 and $7,000 in sales by the end of the day.

This year, those sales are trickling in at a steadier pace.

“The reaction time does feel a little bit slower, but our numbers are ahead of where we were last year by about 10% right now,” she said.

“Hopefully we’ll be back in more of the swing that we’re used to.”

Sara Edwards is the small business and consumer reporter for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat.com. Follow her on Twitter @sedwards380.