The holiday season came with ups and downs for local businesses along downtown Longmont’s Main Street, with many owners looking forward to a renewed start in 2023.
Snarkington’s Gifts at 324 Main St. is filled with eclectic items that owner Lisa Patchem said are meant to make people smile. Wanting to “bring levity to Longmont,” Patchem opened the gift shop in November of 2020.
Despite feeling like the store is well-received by the community, Patchem said sales were down 24% and foot traffic was down 15% this holiday season as compared to the 2021 holiday season. She said she was sure business would be better than last year with pandemic restrictions falling away, but that wasn’t the case.
“The sales we get from (the fourth quarter) … that’s how we survive throughout the year,” she said. “So for that to be down, that’s not good.”
Patchem suspects the lack of a holiday rush this year comes from people’s reluctance to spend money on luxury items, which can include gifts. However, she’s bolstered by the prospect of more downtown tourism in the near future with the construction of a planned boutique hotel.
“I’m hopeful that things are going to unfold,” she said.
Across from Snarkington’s at 381 Main St., craft store Maker General sells all sorts of creative, cozy items. Co-owner Julie Benoit said sales for the holiday season were down compared to previous years, but profits for the whole year were up. Like Patchem, Benoit speculated this could be due to a change in end-of-year shopping trends.
“Maybe people were shopping earlier,” she said. “Maybe people were spending less at Christmas and more on themselves or other people throughout the year.”
Maker General will celebrate five years of business this summer. Benoit and co-owner Stephanie Sterling are excited to host sewing and crafting classes, which were put on hold during the pandemic, at the store in the new year.
The store was open every day of the week leading up to Christmas, but Benoit said Christmas Eve was dead — even though Dec. 22, 23 and 24 are normally some of the Maker General’s busiest days.
“Longmont is still such a sleepy town,” she said. “We’re heavily populated, but downtown is like a ghost town. There’s stuff to do, there are places to go, but like, how do we get people here?”
For sporting goods store Angles Sports at 463 Main St., however, owner Ryan Kazee said holiday business was good.
“I saw a lot of new people, this year more so than last year, coming off the street and buying random stuff,” Kazee said.
The ski, snowboard and fly fishing shop moved to Main Street from 9th Avenue last year. Kazee said the new location has been a good place to do business, especially with shoppers coming over from neighboring stores and restaurants.
“Having the foot traffic off the street has been awesome,” he said. “I don’t want to move.”
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