ALLOUEZ, Wis. — With practiced hands that have done this many times before, Scott Carney waxes a snowboard in the work space at his business, Scott’s Sports LLC.
He opened the four-season sporting goods store in May.
“Seasonal shopping is definitely steady,” Carney said. “I’m seeing people still interested in procuring Christmas presents and upgrading their ski gear despite the lack of snow.”
Carney said businesses has been steady the past few weeks as the holiday shopping season moves into its second half. That’s a nice, and important, way for him to finish out the year.
“This is go time,” Carney said. “So far, my overall expectations have been exceeded and there’s only more to come. If this is kind of only the first session, I think there’s going to be more business to be had.”
The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to be up 3 to 4% this year to somewhere between $957 and $966 billion. That growth is projected to be a little less than last year’s 5.3%.
At EngineHouse Services in Green Bay, owner Justin Hendrickson said holiday sales have been on par with last year. He’ll see some of that business carry past December 24th.
“We also do clinics for beginners, so that ramps up after the holiday season because people get sets for Christmas and they get excited about the hobby and they want to learn more,” Hendrickson said.
A long-time customer, he purchased the business this summer.
“The brick-and-mortar stores are kind of fading and it’s very important to the hobby for people to have some place to come to just buy little items like paint and glue. It’s hard to find that otherwise,” he said. “It’s really hard to order some of that stuff over the internet.”
Carney and Hendrickson are optimistic about the final weeks leading up to the holidays and the end of the year.
“This is just the building of the peak,” Carney said. “I’ve seen consecutively for the last week, day by day beating the former session.”