Specialty stores offer a bright spot for retail

by Deborah Alexander
DemocratandChronicle.com

The 2008 holiday shopping season may be one of the most challenging for retailers.

Nationwide, many retailers already have rolled out pre-holiday sales and special promotions to put consumers into a spending mood and try to meet or beat a modest forecast of 2.2 percent increase in sales, the slowest growth since 2002.

Concerns about the economy, job layoffs and the continuing crisis in the credit and mortgage industries have overshadowed many consumers' plans for holiday shopping sprees.

However, specialty retail may be one of the bright spots. Generating $12 billion in sales annually, these carts, kiosks or temporary storefronts tempt shoppers with a wide range of products that can include designer fragrances, sunglasses, calendars, jewelry, electronics, personalized ornaments, and novelty gifts and toys.

"It's a business model that does well in good times and down times," according to Patricia Norins, publisher of the Specialty Retail Report a trade publication for the industry.

Norins said during the recession in the late 1980s, carts and kiosks did well.

"These retailers focus on price and value, the same things consumers are looking for," she said. "People will still buy holiday gifts this year, they will just spend a little less money."

And when merchandise is $30 or less and not available everywhere else, it's an added incentive to make an impulse purchase.

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