'We're going to make it'

Area retailers find bright spots in challenging year

Susan Pirrie, co-owner of Western Outdoors in Kalispell, admits that her store is "not going to go out with a bang" this year, but she still has nothing but positive thoughts for the future of her business.

She would like to see other people adopt some optimism of their own.

"What gets so frustrating is all we hear is bad, bad, bad, and there's still some good out there," she said. "It would help our attitudes.

"We just need to pull in our belts and live within our means. We're going to have some tightening here, but we're a very proud second-generation store, and we're still doing all right and we're going to make it."

Western Outdoors actually will see a "great" year, Pirrie said, with people still shopping for substantial Christmas gifts, such as boots, hats and Pendleton blankets, and the purchases by last summer's tourists eager to take home their own piece of the West.

The retail world is a frightening place these days, with Wal-Mart being the only large national retailer to report a gain in November, with sales rising 3.4 percent, and a run of recent high-profile bankruptcies in the retail sector.

While the Flathead Valley's smaller retail businesses have taken hits as well in 2008, some face the future knowing they provide products and customer service not available elsewhere, or just something people can't live without.

Knitting may not seem like a necessity, but Melanie Cross, owner of Camas Creek Yarns on Kalispell's Main Street, said she has found that each month sales continue to grow at her year-old specialty yarn shop. And in the larger industry, Cross said a 100-year-old yarn company is doing well enough to have opened a large new store in downtown New York.

"People say they're not going to quit knitting," Cross said. "People may want to stay home and save money, but they're going to want to stay busy. It's comforting to stay home and create something.

"I had a woman tell me it's cheap therapy."

Cross said sales at Camas Creek have increased every month since July and sales are $11,000 higher this month than they were the same month last year, the store's first month in business.

Lynde Price had enough faith in women's passion for shopping that she opened a new store in October, just as the national economic news became increasingly grim.

Price, who also owns Flathead Health and Fitness with her husband, wasn't put off by the news. She had been planning to open Fawn Boutique on Main Street in Kalispell for a year.

"I had put so much work into it already, and the financing and everything came together and we had renovated a building," she said. "I did a lot of research and I knew what I liked and I knew that it was needed here."

Fawn Boutique sells women's clothing for everyone from ages 15 to 70, but it specializes in denim, with a denim bar featuring 13 brands of jeans in 30 different styles. As well as hoping for word-of-mouth publicity, Price is doing as much marketing as she can afford with print advertising and radio commercials. So far, customer traffic is "pretty good," she said.

Clothing is not the biggest seller for Herberger's department store in the Kalispell Center Mall, but sales of technology items, such as the Nintendo Wii game system and back massagers, "have been very good," store manager Gary Evans said.

A more aggressive approach than usual to Christmas sales events also brought shoppers into the store.

And one thing that can't be denied no matter the state of the economy - the cold weather - has helped move some merchandise, Evans said.

"Over the last week or so, we've seen great interest in coats, gloves, cold-weather related items."

He said customer traffic has generally held steady in recent months, but a decrease in Canadian visitors, with the exchange rate becoming more unfavorable for Canadians this fall, has had a bit of an impact.

Fortunate timing is helping offset the recession at Vann's Electronics in Evergreen. The transition from analog to digital television signals in February is sending many people into the store in search of flat-panel televisions.

"People are starting to address the needs of their television sets, whether they need to pick up a converter box or get a new TV," manager Sean Wells said.

People's money anxieties also seem to be driving them toward the purchase of home-theater systems, another big seller for Vann's right now, Wells said.

"A lot of people are wanting to keep the family home as opposed to going out to the movie theater and out to dinner," Wells said. "We're seeing a lot more people coming in with that interest."

Though Wells said the store had a big slowdown in November, things are picking up and the store is on track for better sales overall in 2008 than 2007.

"People feel pretty comfortable with technology," Wells said. "It's hard to live without once you get accustomed to it."

Customer loyalty is another asset to smaller retail businesses in unsettled economic climates.

Don Scharfe, owner of Rocky Mountain Outfitter in downtown Kalispell, said there is no question that some of his customers make a conscious decision to support his 33-year-old store. It's part of how he's held on to his outdoor-merchandise business through other economic slowdowns.

"We rely on local people who have always shopped our store with vigor," Scharfe said, who added that he's always been a 'real nut case" himself about spending his dollars with local businesses.

"Things are going as well as you would expect, given all of the press," Scharfe said about the state of his store. Higher-ticket items, such as alpine-touring skis, are not flying out the door, but he said skis in general are a soft item right now.

Competition probably has more of an effect on his business than the economy, Scharfe said.

It's the same story for Books West on Main Street, which has, like all independent booksellers, been fighting the Internet and large chains for years now.

Owner JoAnn Jensen said, though, that local connections are helping her as well right now. There are a few local books of note right now, such as John Fraley's "Wild River Pioneers' and Patrick Lee's "Canyon Secret," bringing people into the store, plus a few more self-published books drawing interest.

Without citing hard numbers, she said she believes the store might be busier this holiday season than it was last year.

"We seem pretty busy, and I wonder if people are making an effort to shop locally," she said. "The state of the economy might help smaller stores, as people are more conscious about supporting their local stores."

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com