by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If you’ve paid attention to the national media the past few weeks, you’d think the 2008 holiday shopping season represented the darkest days for retail in the last 40 years.
That may be true in some places, but a poll of several local businesses reveals it wasn’t that bad after all: some report the 2008 selling season was even better than 2007.
“We made more money this year than we did last year,” said Juan Gonzalez, owner of Hemming Plaza Jewelers.
Gonzalez has been in business Downtown for five years.
This was his second holiday shopping season in his larger location at the corner of Hogan and Monroe streets a few doors north of his original storefront.
Gonzalez attributed part of this holiday season’s success to staying open more days and extended hours.
“We have been open Saturdays and Sundays in December and in the last few days before Christmas, we were open until 10 p.m,” said Gonzalez, who added he might take off Saturday for the first time in a while.
Gonzalez thinks 2009 might be an even better year.
When he relocated the store, Gonalez gained a second floor that has been planned as an additional showroom and sales area, with the hope to have it ready for customers before the next holiday shopping season.
“This year will allow me to finish the upstairs. By next Christmas, I’ll have the diamond salon open,” he said.
Around the corner at Laura and Hogan streets, Roy and Deloris Thomas, owners of Jacobs Jewelers, were also pleased with the 2008 holiday shopping season.
The store first opened in Jacksonville in 1890 and has been in its present location for 98 years. Roy Thomas has been in the jewelry business in Jacksonville since 1960 when he leased a space in May-Cohen’s department store. He and his wife took over Jacob’s in 1968 and have been through several economic cycles.
“It helps that we’re the oldest jewelry store in Florida,” he said. “This year was even with last year. We didn’t set any records, but when you consider how the economy is right now, I’d have to say that’s pretty good, actually.”
The store didn’t stay open any more than usual, and though foot traffic was off, it didn’t alter the bottom line.
“Traffic was a little soft, but we were selling the larger items,” he added.
Bill Barnett of Barnett Jewelers at Independent Square echoed the comments of his fellow gold and diamond merchants. The Barnett family also has a long retail history in Jacksonville that now includes four generations of jewelers and a similar lineage of customers.
Barnett also said he thinks the store’s location in one of Jacksonville’s premier class-A office buildings was a factor in having a profitable holiday season this year.
“Everybody who walks past our store is gainfully employed,” he said. “And this year we sold a lot of inventory we already had, so we didn’t have to order many things.”
It wasn’t just jewelry stores selling big-ticket items that had the cash registers ringing. Sundrez at the Landing is at the other end of the retail spectrum, specializing in cards and gifts.
“From a dollars standpoint, we were up 15 percent over last year. It would have been an even better season without the recession,” said owner Doug Ganson.
Ganson is a Landing retail veteran and earlier this year moved his store into a new location on the first floor across from Coastal Cookies.
“Having two times the square feet and a more central location surely helped,” he said. “Our gift sales were up 27 percent and card sales were up 50 percent compared to last year, so we were up in the important categories.”
Another element that brought more foot traffic into Sundrez this season was the Contract Postal Unit in the store. Ganson is able to offer all the services found at any U.S. Post Office, with the exception of mailboxes.
“We mailed a ton of packages this year and ran out of stamps a couple of times,” he said. “I think we’ll do even more postal business in 2009 because now more people have discovered we offer that service here.
“From a business standpoint, I expect that part of the business to grow in 2009. What would you rather do — walk a few blocks to go to the post office here or get in your car and drive to Kings Road?”
Terry Wilkins and his wife, Vikki, own the UPS Store on Hogan Street and reported brisk holiday business. They added blueprint reproduction to their list of services this year to accommodate contractors who have to go to the Ed Ball Building across the street to get City building permits.
“Most UPS Stores had less revenue in 2008 than in 2007, but we were actually up this year,” said Wilkins. “The blueprint business hasn’t been as good
as it was because there is less building going on right now, but we expect it will pick up when the new Courthouse gets started.”
Roy Thomas has 48 years of retail experience and said the national retail corporations look at the 2008 holiday season sales in a different light than a small business does.
“The department stores may not be that far behind last year’s sales – but they are far behind projections, which are usually 20 or 25 percent more than the previous year.
“What the chains are is leveraged, so being 8 percent down compared to last year is tough because it might mean they’ll
get behind in debt service,” he said.
356-2466