In a lackluster year for sales, local shops report vibrant holiday shopping season

By Jaime Cone Hughes

Local shop owners are hoping to see strong holiday sales this gift-buying season to make up for what has been a lackluster year in terms of spending, both locally and statewide. 

Tompkins County has yet to release information regarding November sales tax revenue, but two local shops are reporting a busy holiday season compared to last year at this time.

“We are having a record year,” said Diane Richards, owner of Trumansburg shop Sundrees. “We have had days that have been much bigger than last year, with a lot of people coming out from Ithaca.”

“We are buying a lot,” she added, “so in terms of profit margin, it’s not huge, but we’re doing so good. We are doing very well, but we’re buying a lot of product to keep our shelves stocked, keeping people interested in coming back. As soon as Christmas is over, it’s not like we want the shelves to be empty, come January.”

At Alphabet Soup, a toy store on The Commons in Ithaca, a mediocre start to the holiday shopping season took off with an influx of customers on Dec. 7 due to the Cookie Walk and the arrival of Santa, according to Gabs Meade, Alphabet Soup store manager.

“Our Santa week was amazing,” Meade said. “And I think a lot of people felt that way, because we were just slammed.”

“We are a lot busier than we were last year,” Meade added. “We have definitely passed our last-year numbers.” 

Retailers experiencing a shaky 2024 

While retail spending had been on an upward swing since the COVID-19 pandemic, this year has seen sales tax revenue dip slightly in Tompkins County compared to 2023. 

“I can tell you that, year over year, as of this October compared to last year to date, we are down 6.93%,” said Lorrie Scarrott, Tompkins County finance director. “It’s been relatively flat — we’ve been trending just a hair below 2023.”

This was reflected in the county property tax levy increase recommended by Tompkins County Administrator Lisa Holmes earlier this year to address increased expenses and to account for sales tax revenues that appear to be stagnating.

“Sales tax revenue, which totaled $43.2 million in 2023, has lagged in 2024 by $2.5 million year-to-date in June,” the county reported in September, adding, “The proposed budget anticipates $43.2 million in 2025 sales tax revenue, mirroring the actual amount raised in 2023 but $200,000 lower than what was budgeted in 2024.”

Local sales tax collections in New York state increased by 2.3% in October compared to the same month in 2023, according to data released by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Overall, local collections throughout the state totaled $1.84 billion for the month, up $41 million year over year.

“October growth in statewide sales tax collections was led by New York City, buoying monthly performance after virtually flat statewide growth in September,” DiNapoli said. “Recent volatility in sales tax collections warrants caution for local governments as they finalize their budgets for next year.”

For the month of October, New York City’s collections totaled $842 million, an increase of 4.1%, or $33 million, compared to the same time last year, while county and city collections in the rest of the state totaled $884 million, an increase of 0.4%.

Over 63% (36 of 57) of counties experienced year-over-year increases for the month.

Though total annual sales tax revenue in Tompkins County has increased year over year between 2021 and 2023, revenue for the month of December has gone down, seeing a slight decrease from $4,774,474 in 2021 to $4,762,918 in 2022, then experiencing a more significant drop to $4,171,072 in 2023.

Many national retail giants are also feeling the pinch this holiday shopping season, particularly Target, which has a location in Lansing. Reuters recently reported that consumers are turning to the deeper savings found in sales offered by rival retailers, including Walmart. 

Walmart, which has stores in Ithaca and Cortland, raised its annual sales and profit forecast for the third consecutive time in November, Reuters reported. 

A busy end-of-year season for local stores 

The hope for local retailers is to see the holiday season finish strong, and the outlook so far is positive, though Black Friday is not the major boon it used to be. 

“Black Friday was a little slow, but it was like that for everyone,” said Meade of foot traffic in Alphabet Soup. 

Nan Rohrer, chief executive director of Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA), said that she received varying reports from retailers regarding Black Friday.

“I was not in town until late Saturday night,” she explained. “People told me that Friday was really good, but Saturday was not as good.”

Meade noticed that sales at the toy store have included a lot of big bulk purchases and many customers who appeared to be getting a large portion of their holiday shopping completed in one downtown visit. “A lot of people wanted to get it done in one go — they said, ‘We’re going to all the shops right now. We’re going for it.’”

This desire to shop local and to purchase a lot of gifts in one trip was noticed by Richards at Sundrees, as well.

“People are coming here to do all their Christmas shopping,” Richards said. “We have kids’ stuff, body care, a little men’s section and ornaments, and a lot of people are saying they can come here and do a lot of gift shopping.”

Richards said she believes the calm atmosphere and ample free parking in Trumansburg makes the village a welcoming shopping destination.

“We have a lot of available shopping in Trumansburg,” she said. “Older people … they don’t have to do a long walk from a parking garage.”

Richards added that the Grain Bin Vintage Holiday Market, held in Trumansburg on Nov. 23 and 24, brought in many customers. The holiday market had a line out the door, she said.

As part of its downtown December festivities, DIA has introduced a new promotion designed to bring shoppers downtown. The Comfort Food Trail began Dec. 7 and will run until Dec. 21. As the event’s website explains, the Comfort Food Trail invites people to visit ithaca.brightrtravel.com/s/passport/comfort-food-trail and join downtown businesses for two weeks of “good eats, festive drinks, and some friendly competition.” Participants can earn entry into the grand prize of a $250 downtown Ithaca gift card.

The initiative is being offered as an alternative to the Chowder Cook-off, which took place in early December for the last 13 years but did not return this year; the DIA decided it was too taxing on the local restaurants during one of the busiest times of the year.

Instead of asking restaurants to cook extra chowder and lend their staff to stand on The Commons for the cook-off, the Comfort Food Trail lets restaurants highlight items that they already have on the menu.  

“They already sell mac and cheese — let us not make this harder for you [restaurant owners], where you have to make something special or offer a deal where you would potentially lose money on it,” Rohrer said. “We’re here to give exposure to what you’re doing and give it some buzz.”

There are a number of strategic reasons why DIA hosts events, and one of them is to cultivate a feeling of goodwill for downtown, said Rohrer.

“We’re hoping that it leaves [people] feeling positively about downtown,” she said. Events draw people to the area where the storefronts exist, exposing them to everything Ithaca has to offer, Rohrer said, adding that even if they don’t set foot in a single store while they are there for the event, they are much more likely to visit the downtown area in the future.

A post-pandemic world puts vibrant downtowns in a positive position because people are craving experiences and connections with other humans, said Rohrer. People are eager to have an in-person exchange outside of the world of social media.

“So much of our life now takes place in that little box,” Rohrer said, referring to smart phones. “For downtown, there is that opportunity to capitalize on that desire to not just live in a cookie cutter, big box store world.”

“We hope to strive in downtown for something unique and different,” she added.

This year, DIA put out a guide that highlights the different holiday gift ideas available at the local stores, working with retailers and merchants to provide readers of the guide with a sampling of different things in the stores. The items are sorted into categories, such as ideas of outdoor enthusiasts and gifts for staying warm and cozy at home. The guide can be found in locations throughout Ithaca, and a link to the virtual version can be found at downtownithaca.com/holidaysindowntown.

“First and foremost, we always want to reiterate that it shows they value the local economy and their fellow community members when people shop locally,” Rohrer said. “We try to keep reminding folks that these are people your kids go to school with, or that local shop owners are the people you’re in the grocery store line with. These are friends and neighbors dedicated to the work that they are doing and the services they are trying to provide.”