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How Local Businesses Handled the Holiday Season

Now that Christmas is over, some businesses can breathe a sigh of relief, not having to hustle and bustle nonstop to accommodate holiday shoppers. For some local businesses, their number of customers fluctuated in an unusual fashion.

“Retail is very unusual, because you can have twenty people in the store, and then an hour later, you don’t have anybody, and then you have twenty more, so it’s very unpredictable,” says Rita Hess, co-owner of Traveling Ladders, an antique store in downtown Alpena.

A few local businesses in Alpena are appreciative of the community for thinking of them as their go–to place for gifts. Hess has a slogan, and that’s to ‘Try Alpena First.’

“I just think we should all do that,” she said. “I mean, we don’t have everything, that’s for sure. But, just try to find it here, and if you don’t, then go online.”

Hess co–owns Traveling Ladders with her husband. She says there’s a sense of family among the local businesses.

“I do believe that all of us are together,” she said. All the businesses support each other, count on each other, and if I don’t have something, I always send them to a different business.”

In a day and age where the convenience of online shopping may make things difficult for local businesses to thrive, that customer service touch can go a long way.

Thunder Bay Winery was also a popular destination for local shoppers, as there are some wines and other gifts that are in season in the winter.

“We have our spiced cherry and our harvest apple, which come fully spiced with cinnamon cloves and nutmeg in them, and so that’s really popular during the holiday season, cause it’s an easy dish to pass to bring, or a nice gift, and it’s really catered to that winter season,” says Janis Sahr, owner of Thunder Bay Winery. A bottle of wine can be a festive gift to give, and this holiday season, there’s one kind that was more popular.

“We had a lot of asking for red wines this holiday season, so luckily, we offer quite a few really nice dry red wines, so we were able to pair a wine with everybody’s desire this holiday season,” she said. With the surge of people wanting to shop locally this year, Thunder Bay Winery’s numbers were on track with their pre–COVID sales.

“We’re very hopeful that 2023 year, that it’ll be an outstanding year,” Sahr said.

New Year’s will be a busy time for the two businesses, but after that, they’re expecting a slower period, some relief, after a busy holiday season.