Selling Service:
Merchants Pamper and Diversify to Keep Holiday Shoppers on Main Street
As the holiday shopping season kicked off last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, many local merchants were employing innovative techniques to keep customers on Main Street, rather than in malls.
Customer service was most frequently cited when merchants were asked last Friday how they are attracting shoppers.
Catering to customers has become an increasingly important marketing tool used by local shop owners since the rise of mega-malls, according to merchants. During last Friday, which has traditionally been one of the busiest shopping days of the year, the importance of pampering was apparently even greater.
"I think we give more hospitality than the major stores," said Mike Heuser, one of the managers of Four Star Variety on Main Street.
The store has been owned since 1991 by the Schuman family, which owns four of its kind throughout Long Island. Tom Schuman, another manager of the shop, said the store has also recently been remodeled, and its shelves are being stocked with more quality merchandise than in the past. "We make the store bright and clean," he added.
"Farmingdale has been going through changes. I think we've changed with the times," Schuman said, noting that the store is now open on Sundays and later during the week, is happy to make special orders for customers, and carries a diverse line of useful gifts. He added, "We look to carry merchandise that the people can't get everywhere." Schuman said last Friday that sales that day were consistent with sales on the day after Thanksgiving last year.
The shop next door to Four Star Variety, Irene's House of Gifts, is also placing added emphasis on pleasing customers this holiday shopping season. "The focus is on service," Robin Graudons said as she helped customers with porcelain pieces inside her busy store Friday. Irene's, another family owned store, has been on Main Street for 20 years. Like Variety, it is open on Sundays and late on weekdays. The store also does free gift-wrapping, ships merchandise "anywhere," holds special events for collectibles, and takes telephone orders, according to Graudons.
Harry Bowen, who has owned Wolly's, a hardware store on Main Street for the past 42 years, said his customer service surpasses that of the mega-stores. "You can come into this store anytime. Nobody's going to ignore you," he said. He added that he offers free delivery, a knowledgeable staff, and a senior citizen discount every day. He also often assembles items without charging customers for labor. "We care about our customers," he said, adding, "We're an old-fashioned hardware store with old-fashioned values."
Despite these old-fashioned values, Bowen said the store, like others on Main Street is open on Sundays. "We once had a sign on our door - 'Never on Sundays,'" he said, noting that fierce competition taught him never to say never.
Bowen has also diversified the product line of the store, carrying such items as ceramic bowls, and cooking thermometers, which sold out the day before Thanksgiving. The store's sales on the day after Thanksgiving this year were about the same as last year, according to Bowen. However, he noted that he usually does most of his holiday business seven or eight days before Christmas.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday" to those in the retail industry, because it has traditionally been the first day of the holiday shopping season that retailers begin to see a profit. However, Doreen Frankel, marketing director for Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, reported that sales were not extraordinary last Friday. "It was a normal, busy day," she said. "I find, in the past couple of years, Black Friday wasn't what it used to be," she added, citing price markdowns throughout the holiday shopping season, rather than only on that day, as the biggest factor.
Schuman, the manager of Four Star Variety, said local residents have more than one reason to shop on Main Street this holiday season. One reason is the convenience of shopping locally. Another reason, he noted, is to help the central business district thrive. "If they lose their Main Street, then they lost their town," he said. "I just think there are examples all over Long Island where towns lost their Main Streets, and it just doesn't come back."
In addition to stressing service and diversifying their products, local merchants have adorned their stores with holiday decorations, and are playing festive music on the street. Also, the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce and the Village of Farmingdale have worked together to adorn the streets with red and green garland in the shape of bells. "Farmingdale is a real nice town around the holidays. It really is," Schuman said. "For all the merchants it's an important time of the year."
One local shopper had her own reasons for staying on Main Street last Friday. "It's close to my home, and it's not as crowded as the malls," said Penny Riley of Farmingdale. "And they're local people, and I'm a local person."
