We have a nice gift shop that have been doing great since January, we have been 30% ahead from last year until October hit, that was the slowest october of all the years. I thought November is going to pick up but still a bit slow, though we are 15% ahead compared to November last year. It’s just odd that seems sudden slow .
My sales are up this year overall, but it’s not due to normal business. We had some expansion and special projects that made a difference. Comparing events that are pure retail, shoppers were more conservative from august to now and our holiday markets were down by about 33%. Cost of materials also increased this year. Some as much as 60%.
I believe it’s because we are coming up on an election year and our economy is fairly uncertain going into the holiday season. On top of that, there are wars going on which has people overall more cautious of how they spend right now even if that isn’t a conscious decision. Hopefully this trend doesn’t persist into next year.