Spreading holiday cheer
Christmas means it’s time for carols and gift shopping for most Vestavia Hills residents — and that, in turn, means dollar signs for the city’s local businesses.
The Christmas shopping season, which heats up from early November until Dec. 25, makes up a large chunk of revenue for small businesses.
Karol Leggett, the owner of Kidz Closet in Vestavia Hills City Center, said about a quarter of her revenue comes from sales in November and December.
Flowerbuds owner Ray Jordan said the Cahaba Heights store can make up to 30 percent of its annual sales in that roughly six-week period.
“Our traffic in the store is double” during that time, Jordan said.
The city overall reflects that trend.
In both the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, the single highest month of sales tax revenue was January, which is when December sales tax proceeds are collected. Each year, January sales tax dollars exceeded $1.25 million. Those dollars go back into the city budget for road work, sidewalk projects and other work across Vestavia.
From October 2016 to January 2017, the North U.S. 31 and South U.S. 31 commercial areas generated $554,000 and $574,000, respectively, in sales and use tax revenue. Cahaba Heights sales tax during that time totaled $431,000, followed by the Central U.S. 31 area at $398,000 and Rocky Ridge at $275,000.
Sales tax collected from chains with multiple Vestavia locations and “out of area” purchases — such as purchases made in other cities for construction or landscaping projects in Vestavia Hills — exceeded $1.9 million during those four months.
“The owners of those businesses have a stake in the community,” said Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce board chair Roger Steur, pointing out that not only do local businesses contribute through taxes, but by supporting the community through donations and in other ways as well.
“I know that I always prefer to shop local when I can,” he said.
Handling the holiday rush
With a quarter or more of their annual budget on the line, local businesses start preparing for the Christmas season long before the weather turns cold. Jordan said he gets customer questions as early as August about when Christmas decor will arrive in the store.
Katherine McRee and Susan Day, co-owners of The Lili Pad, began making red, green and white bows for gift wrapping in late summer. Last Christmas, they estimate they wrapped between 3,500 and 4,000 gifts for customers.
“We did run out [of bows] last year,” McRee said. “We won’t breathe again probably from Nov. 1 to the day before Christmas.”
The extra dollars that come in from Christmas shopping means they’re able to put gifts of their own under the tree.
“It helps Susan and I buy Christmas presents for our own families,” McRee said.
For a small business owner, there are multiple threats to a profitable holiday season. Leggett has noticed a decrease in people walking through the door at Kidz Closet as online shopping has become more popular.
“More people are shopping online and not as many are shopping local as they were five to 10 years ago,” Leggett said.
Regional or national chain stores can afford slimmer profit margins and stock more variety of products, leading some customers to choose the convenient, cheaper option. And though the idea of “shopping local” has seen recent growth in popularity, Leggett said it’s frequently something shoppers talk about but don’t act upon.
“I think a lot of people say they shop local and support local. The actions, I think, are far less than people think, than people talk about,” Leggett said. “Local merchants are finding that we are losing a lot of business, that our community is not supporting us. It affects how we can turn around and support the community.”
The ways that local businesses respond to these threats are varied. The Lili Pad posts pictures of clothing online and can sell through PayPal, which opens them up to shoppers beyond the Birmingham area. McRee and Day said their sales have actually increased compared to last year.
Jordan focused Flowerbuds on services chain or online stores can’t provide, such as in-home holiday decorating. He said Flowerbuds staff will decorate homes nearly every day from mid-November to mid-December, and he has been decorating for some homeowners for decades.
Since moving to Cahaba Heights eight years ago, Jordan said he has noticed more loyalty from local customers there than in Flowerbuds’ previous home at City Center.
“I think Cahaba Heights has been a really good neighborhood shopping center like Mountain Brook Village,” Jordan said.
A more focused effort
McRee and Day said they would like to see more Christmas events themed around business in the city, like the holiday open houses in Homewood and Mountain Brook.
Taking matters into their own hands, McRee and Day, along with Leggett and several other Vestavia business owners, decided to bring the holiday cheer themselves.
Cahaba Heights merchants hosted Deck the Heights on Nov. 9, which included an open house for businesses and Christmas-themed activities, giveaways and sales for shoppers. The event, which McRee said she had expected to bring 100 people to the area, saw probably four or five times that according to her estimates.
Amy Fuqua, a Cahaba Heights resident who shopped at Deck the Heights, said she loved the chance to visit shops she wasn’t aware of, but also to get to mingle and chat with local business owners.
“It’s not everyday that you walk into a business, even a small business, that you get to see the person who owns it,” Fuqua said.
“We have so many talented people in Cahaba Heights and in Vestavia Hills, that we have to remember that they are here, they need our business, they need traffic flowing through their stores so that they can stay.”
More than 50 shops across the city also participated in Vestavia’s Shop Small Day on Nov. 18, with merchants banding together to provide shopping incentives and giveaways to encourage the entire community to participate.
With events like these, the goal is to show local residents how much small businesses have to offer, both in products and personal service, and to bring new customers through the doors at Christmastime and all year long.
“[Local stores] totally rely on people coming in and shopping,” McRee said.
As far as literally putting their money where their mouth is, Fuqua said it’s simply about purposefully including local stores in the holiday bustle.
“You’re already making a plan for your shopping, just make sure that you’re including local spots,” she said, emphasizing that many of Vestavia’s shopping centers offer easy access, parking and a variety of stores.
“It’s not hard to include local businesses like that,” she said.