Jan 4, 2008

Bust? What bust? Store owners use superlatives to describe their salesBy Zaz HollanderADN.com

The word cropped up everywhere in national media reports of slow holiday sales that frazzled shop owners and big retailers alike. Other words cropped up too: credit crunch, sagging housing markets, tight household budgets.

But in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a different word surfaced, at least among a few retailers.

Exceptional.

The Source, a Wasilla clothing store that also sells skateboard and snowboard gear, had a “record year” with December sales up 22 percent compared to a year ago, owner Lucy Orr said. “And last year was no slacker.”

The store gained customers after the Gottschalks store in town was torn down last summer along with the Cottonwood Creek Mall. But Orr said a bigger factor was the continued — albeit slowing — population growth here, plus the growing number of places to shop.

“People are actually shopping in the Valley. They’re deciding they really don’t have to go to Anchorage,” she said. “In fact, we have a lot of people that are coming from Chugiak and even Eagle River that shop with us instead of going to Anchorage.”

The word at NonEssentials gift shop in Palmer was “phenomenal.”

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