KENNEWICK, Wash. – According to a report by the National Retail Federation, more than 200 million people shopped Thanksgiving weekend. That’s up from a year ago. One local business owner said they’ve seen slow increases in customers.
Kara Vogt is the owner of D’lynne’s Boutique in Kennewick. She said she first opened the store in December 2019. Vogt said she’s seeing business coming back in spurts.
According to Vogt, people are still nervous to buy things because of the pandemic and inflation there for are prioritizing what to buy.
“The discretionary spending that you would typically have is going more towards putting gas in your tanks and food on your table, rather than being out shopping,” Vogt said.
Vogt said people are still going shopping. Her customer level is not the number it’s been in the past. The NRF says 55% of people who went shopping on Thanksgiving weekend were sale driven. 31% of those were convinced to buy something they were hesitant about because of a limited time on the sale.
Vogt said even though the number of customers is not what it was, she is seeing improvements.
“People are excited to be out again and they are shopping,” she said. “They’re just shopping for the more unique hard-to-find pieces right now.”
Vogt said due to this, she’s had to adjust and said her parents recently moved to the area. Her father makes items out of leather and she sells these items in her store. She also partnered with seven other local boutiques in to come up with an idea to bring customers back.
The idea is Tour de Boutique.
“There’s a passport page and each of our logos is on it,” said Vogt. “You go around to the different shops and we’ll just initial and put a sticker on our logo. Once it’s filled out you leave it at the last shop, and on December 15 there will be a drawing.”
Vogt said the prize is worth $1000 with items from all the boutiques.
According to Vogt, this is the second year she and the other shops have put on Tour de Boutique. This is all with the purpose of supporting local businesses which Vogt said is important to not only the businesses but also the community.
“The local is where you live, it’s where you work, it’s where you interact with people,” said Vogt. “Supporting your local market helps build that stronger, broader economy.”
