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The W.E. Fuller company has been selling men’s clothing in downtown Amesbury for more than 100 years.

The Fuller family has run the store through the Great Depression, the two World Wars, through boom years and slow downs, all of which gives Ron Fuller, the current third-generation owner, some perspective on how the ongoing financial crisis might affect business.

Fuller isn’t convinced by reports that warn retailers that this holiday season may end with dismal sales numbers. He thinks the media is creating a gloom-and-doom cloud over the season.

“I’m sure there will be a little crunch,” says Fuller. “The difference is that instead of a shirt and tie, maybe this year it will be just the shirt.”

Fuller expects plenty of shoppers will be stopping in for gifts over the next several weeks.

“I’m optimistic,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve always been optimistic.”

Still economic analysts are closely watching Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping days of the year and, according to retail legend, the day when many businesses move from the red-ink loss column back to the black and profits. It’s the traditional start of the holiday shopping season that many believe will be the leanest in memory.

The National Retail Federation is predicting retail sales will rise 2.2 percent and consumers will spend $470 billion on holiday gifts and trimmings. And that doesn’t sound half bad until one reads the rest of the Federation’s press release that explains that gain will be well below the 10-year average of a 4.4 percent annual jump in holiday sales, and the worst year since 2002.

While that may be the official word about holiday sales, the businesses on Main Street don’t seem to be buying it. Even though they continually compete with the lure of the malls and the draw of tax-free New Hampshire, many believe that the quality of their merchandise is their ace in the hole and they expect to see plenty of shoppers over the next couple weeks.

“The businesses are already seeing an increase in sales,” says Stephanie McCowan, executive director of the Amesbury Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Foundation. “A lot of people might be trying to get their shopping done early.”

As always, McCowan has been pushing the idea that shoppers will do better if they spend their dollars locally.

“The things you purchase around town might be a little more expensive, but the quality is 100 times better,” she says.

And McCowan says downtown shops have a lot more to offer than the same old stuff you find on the racks in the chain stores in the malls.

“Everything is unique, and it’s that uniqueness that people want when they’re shopping for gifts,” she says.

But are quality one-of-a kind products enough to keep people coming through the doors when day after day they’re hit with headlines that announce trillion-dollar losses and reports that warn huge numbers of jobs are disappearing?

Dawn Dow who works at her family’s shop, Starbird Jewelers, thinks it is. Like W.E. Fuller, Starbird Jewelers is a longtime resident of downtown Amesbury. The Starbirds have been in business for 47 years so they have seen some boom and bust seasons.

And Dow is feeling pretty confident that, despite all the bad economic news, the shop will do well during the holidays. She’s already wrapped at least a dozen gifts for customers.

“I really think people will still have Christmas,” she says. “It may not be the best year, but people will still celebrate and give gifts.”

Like W.E. Fuller, Starbird Jewelers has a loyal clientele, which helps.

But she also believes all of downtown Amesbury will see plenty of shoppers once the shopping season starts picking up.

Still, keeping customers in town is a challenge. McCowan admits she was a little nervous when the price of gas starting dropping daily. At $4 a gallon you could pretty much bank on the idea that shoppers would stay close to home rather than driving a couple hours north to outlet centers and malls.

“I thought that would be a great jump start to the season,” says McCowan. “But now, people will go to California to buy a gift.”

That’s probably possible, but Deb Paglia, head of the Amesbury Downtown Business Association and owner of Parke Place a home furnishing and gift shop on Market Street, thinks shoppers are savvy enough to know there are plenty of great deals in their own back yard.

Like Fuller, Paglia says the grim predictions about sales that are continually reported in the media have been troubling, but she’s still confident that it will be a good season.

“I think people might wait until the last minute to run out and grab something,” she says. And like Fuller, she expects some customers will hold back a little and spend less. But she’s still sure the holidays will include a fair amount of spending and gift giving.

“People will be getting together more than ever and they’re going to want to bring something when they visit,” she says.

Paglia says one of the best strategies, along with stocking things that are unusual and funky, is to include merchandise that fits into every price range. Shoppers, she says, are looking for values and bargains, and stores that pay attention to that will do well.

Paglia believes that once people see downtown trimmed up and looking like a little winter wonderland, people will be out along side their neighbors celebrating the holidays the same way they do every year, just with slightly more restraint.
“People will come out,” she says. “And downtown will be ready.”
By Barbara Taormina