Downtown businesses enjoy pre-Christmas surge
Clothing orders are flooding into In Mint Consignment Boutique since it opened last month and shoppers are lapping up its stocks of gently used clothing.
Owner Pam Ford told The News that her store was enjoying a steady flow of foot traffic, hunting for Christmas gifts at In Mint from women’s dresses to romantic thrillers written by her sister displayed on a table.
“The last two months have been awesome,” said Ford. “November was awesome and this month has been the same.”
Across the street at the Clay Art Studio and Coffeehouse, storeowner Carey Allan said that it was hard to say what the traffic would normally be, given that her business is only in its first year.
Nonetheless, she noticed that downtown foot traffic to both her store and others in downtown New Glasgow was quite heavy in the last two or so months.
“Weekends are definitely really busy, weekdays are still a little quiet,” said Carey.
Customers at her store can enjoy a coffee and paint pottery — and can buy products such as pots and jars. Among her clientele are students who take pottery lessons with classes booked for the New Year.
However, over at the Highland Square Mall, manager Michelle Crossan at the Stokes kitchenware store said that her store had seen a slight slowdown this year.
Possible reasons included the economy and fears over layoffs at local businesses, but Crossan did not know what exactly caused sales to slow down over Christmas 2017.
“We feel very busy, but as opposed to last year, not quite up to that,” said Crossan.
Nonetheless, a steady stream of customers was seen fiing into Stokes to buy cutlery, wine glasses, drink dispensers, kitchen gadgets and décor.