News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters retailers faced a nearly perfect storm of trouble this Christmas season, with a tanking economy and weather that kept a lot of people either indoors or busy digging out from under mountains of snow.
However, all things considered, Sisters' merchants seem to feel like they emerged from the critical holiday run-up in pretty decent shape.
"You know, it wasn't too bad," said longtime Sisters retailer John Leavitt.
He said that sales were down a bit from previous years, but not to an alarming degree.
Leavitt did not offer unusual discounts to entice customers looking for deals in a down economy.
"We had quite a few things discounted, but it was just what we usually do," he said.
"I was pleased," said Brad Smith, owner of Paulina Springs Books. "I mean, with all the doom and gloom, I didn't know what to expect."
Smith hasn't done year-to-year comparisons yet, but he expects the news to be reasonably good.
"It's probably down a bit, but not a lot," he said.
Like Leavitt's, Paulina Springs did not discount heavily.
Preston Thompson of Black Butte Ranch said that occupancy was "a little lower than what we'd expect" in terms of visitors, but many homeowners made their traditional holiday trip to the Ranch.
"It's the same as everything else," he said. "People are holding onto their wallets a little tighter."
Overall, he said, "it's not horrible; it's not great. I don't think we get the high highs, but we don't get the low lows, either."
Heavy snows are a double-edged sword for lodging establishments. They entice people to Central Oregon to play in the snow, but if travel conditions are too rough, it discourages them from making the trip.
Thompson thinks most of his clientele made it to the Ranch despite the weather.
"Most of the people coming over that are going to ski at Hoodoo or come and stay here, they're experienced winter travelers," he said.
It was a good time to be in the business of selling gloves and hats and snow boots.
Terry Mumey, owner of MacKenzie Creek Trading Co., said that the weather helped his business in that sense, but he thinks some people were discouraged from coming out to shop. The snow plowing that left ODOT mandated "No Parking" signs along Cascade Avenue was no help, Mumey said. Nor did it help that much of the side street parking was blocked by huge piles of plowed snow that covered parking spaces.
He said the parking situation definitely had an impact on all the Cascade Avenue merchants.
"That hurt us and all the stores in Sisters, according to the merchants I've talked to. In a tough economy, it just made it harder for stores to compete," Mumey said.
Still, the season was pretty good for MacKenzie Creek Trading Co.
"Christmas was actually pretty good for us - better than November, which was slow. The 10 days leading up to Christmas were very strong."
John Leavitt, who has weathered three decades of ups and downs in Sisters, was philosophical.
"The economy's bad and then all this snow doesn't help any of us, that's for sure," he said.
But, he said, "we're all in the same boat, whether you're in retail ... or building houses, it's slow. You've just got to get through it."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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