Off the Rack: The summer slump
Fayetteville, N.C. — Is anybody actually reading this today, or are you all at the beach?
Dean Ogan, a partner in The Mash House Restaurant & Brewery, told me a couple of years ago that if you’re going to renovate a restaurant in Fayetteville, summer is the time to do it because that’s when the beach slows business.
I still think about what he said each time it’s a hot weekend day and I pop into a local shop where it feels as if tumbleweeds will be rolling past at any moment – or even when I’m in a crowded big box store. In the latter case, I imagine how much more crowded it might be if the ocean weren’t so temptingly close.
Those of you reading the print version of this column can see a graph comparing retail sales of Cumberland County with one of the beach counties.
Granted, major economic fluctuations, deployments and other factors play a part in the ups and downs you’ll see there. But note that in a couple of cases, the two counties’ lines go in opposite directions. Surely that’s no coincidence.
The beach can definitely do a number on Fayetteville foot traffic, said Frances Morketter, owner of Betty Kelly’s gift shop in Haymount.
On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity to sell customers things to take with them, she said.
“We know (many of) our customers and which ones have beach houses … so I do buy things sometimes with them in mind thinking they might like this,” Morketter said. “Sometimes they do. And sometimes it sits on the shelf.”
