Care for a grape? They're a bit sour....

I thought I'd compare this weekend's sales to my average weekend's sales, to see if the Winterfest had a negative impact by NOT being downtown anymore.

It's not like we could fit this event into our narrow streets anymore anyway, right?

But...I just don't miss it.

Don't miss the traffic. Don't miss the crowds. I like my regulars and the tourist flow on a normal weekend. Daily business, doing it daily, thank you very much.

So we'll compare this weekend to the last three or four and see what we come up with. At end of this post.



Meanwhile, I was talking to another downtown merchant who felt that losing the Winterfest was not a good thing. He was worried about losing all our events.

I told him I thought that was very unlikely. For me, the real danger is that we keep adding events willy nilly until every 'peak weekend' is full, not allowing me to be just a regular store during the busiest months.

That's just it, he said. We could use this event this time of year

. I agreed with that -- mostly -- but mentioned that I thought we still get tons of foot traffic. We're pretty vibrant.

That can change, he said.

Again, I agreed. But mentioned that I thought we'd have plenty of warning signs. I watched the Mt. View Mall diminish for years -- and even when I had decided it was fully and totally burnt black toast, there were still merchants in denial. But we are nothing like that. Take away the decrease, if any, of foot traffic from the second biggest downturn in the economy in this century, and our foot traffic is pretty damn good.

Besides where else are new stores going to go?

He said one last thing, which I didn't argue with and is probably true: his business (a restaurant) benefits from these events. Fair enough.



Anyway, on to the final results....................:

We did exactly 33% better than the average of the previous four weekends (Fr., Sat. Sun.).

It may be coincidence. Still, I think it would be hard to argue that not having Winterfest hurt sales.

In fact, it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to suggest that it might have helped sales.

If someone were to say that Winterfest brought people into the general vicinity, well all the better. That way we get most of the benefits, without most of the hassles.

Just saying...

I also should mention that Linda and I dropped by the store after closing on Sunday; and the streets were packed. "It's hard to imagine it being much busier than this on a winter Sunday, " I said to her.

No worries.