Local specialty stores prepare for holiday shopping season

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

aluthern@vindy.com

boardman

As large retailers roll out holiday ad campaigns and seasonal sales, local specialty stores are competing for customers by offering personalized attention and extra services.

“We had our best Black Friday ever,” said Jim Yankush, owner of YM Camera, 755 Boardman-Canfield Rd. “In the camera business, I feel a lot of families aren’t traveling as much, but they’re still making memories, and our business is up.”

Yankush added that individual customer attention helps smaller, specialty stores like his camera shop compete with larger retailers.

“When you come in here, we ask questions. ‘What are you taking pictures of, what do you want to change.’ We don’t want to under or oversell, but find the right fit for the person,” he said. “We put each camera together with the memory card and everything, so that when they walk out the door, they can take pictures. Customers aren’t used to being treated like that.”

Carol Wolfgang, owner of The Fragrance Collection, 6126 Market St., said that loyalty is strong at local stores.

“I think specialty stores have a better loyalty of followers than big major chains,” she said. “We stand behind our products and are more of a ma and pa store, and customers really like the attention.”

Extra services, like free gift wrapping or collecting donations for nonprofit organizations, also help attract customers.

“We offer free gift wrapping all year, which is a nice touch. We ask for donations and all of the money goes to the Mahoning County Workshop for mentally challenged adults,” Wolfgang said.

Another Boardman store, Possessions, which specializes in women’s fashion, is also attracting customers by donating to local causes.

“To help spur business, we do cocktail parties here at the store and donate 10 percent of all the purchased items back to the organizations,” said Linda Deckant, owner of Possessions, 945 Boardman-Canfield Road. Some recent organizations that have participated include Easter Seals and Paul C. Bunn School, which raised more than $300 for a school garden.

Deckant said that in addition to “parties with a purpose,” Possessions saw a boost in sales during the week of Thanksgiving.

“We did have promotions and sales for Thanksgiving to try to fight with the malls,” she said. “But customers are watching spending. The only pants that are selling are jeans.”

Some specialty businesses, though, predict that sales will remain steady throughout December.

“I’ll do about the same business as normal because most of our customers here are longtime customers,” said Bill Spiker, owner of Lois Candies, which has been at 5049 Market St. since 1956. “All of our candy is made on site. We just can’t make as much candy and as fast as a bigger company.”