Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201300034
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 33 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By JOE TENNIS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
BUSINESS RESULTS MIXED FOR SMALL RETAILERS
Every month, business at Pat Buckland's gift shop seems to get better.Buckland, 42, opened her shop, Corner Cupboard, 2 1/2-years ago. It sells pottery, afghans and other country accents.
So far, business has been "good . . . but I don't know what to expect. I've never been in the good times," she said.
Another shop, A New Song, opened in November and also has no good times to compare its sales figures.
Located near Bogen's on North Main Street in Blacksburg, A New Song sells Christian T-shirts, books and music.
Manager Joe McLaughlin, 22, says business - 70 percent comes from Virginia Tech and Life Bible College East students - has been going well. So well, in fact, the store wants to start stocking sheet music for local churches.
"We want to expand in new and different areas," said McLaughlin, a former bassist for the Christian heavy metal band Overdrive.
Many small retail shops in the New River Valley have said they've weathered the recession better than they've expected. Others have been less lucky.
"We've been doing great," bubbles Gretchen Gibson, 26, manager of the Dublin Flower Shop.
"People are still buying what they always buy. I don't think that's changed a lot. People are still buying roses for anniversaries; they haven't gone to something less expensive."
Other flower shops are less celebrational.
"It's very slow," said Linda Salyers, who owns Christiansburg Florist and Gifts with her husband, Jim.
"People are buying less. And they're only buying exactly what they need, other than what they want."
To combat different buying trends, Salyers has re-arranged her flower arrangements and restocked her shelves with the economy in mind. "We sort of geared down and put everything in a price range where people could buy."
Jeff Corbin, owner of Radford City Florist, has taken an exact opposite approach to changed buying habits: He's displaying his flowers in extravagant ways "to catch attention more," he said.
Sharon Waite, owner of Simple Pleasures in downtown Radford, noticed a trend in customers to buy more practical items.
"I think people are much more cautious and careful of what they're buying. Last year, they may have bought Christmas decorations as gifts. But this year, they're buying things people can use."
For instance, if they buy a wreath for Christmas, they make sure they buy "one they can use all year long," Waite said.
Businesses providing photography services also are claiming discouraging drops in foot traffic crossing their floors.
John Kline, owner of the Gentry Studio of Blacksburg, not only blames the economy but new parking meters in downtown Blacksburg and more on-campus businesses at Virginia Tech for taking the wind out of his sales.
"It's a real challenge for us this year, to put it mildly," said Kline, owner of the shop since 1976.
Almost the same words come from Mike Vordo, co-owner of PFS, Inc., a photofinishing service in Radford.
"In 12 years, this has been the worst year we've had," Vordo said.
People aren't snapping as many pictures as they did during boom times, Vordo said. And businesses aren't spending money on promotional photos like they used to during the good old days, he added. "We've lost all the way across the board."
Both Kline and Vordo worry about January and February - two months Kline calls "the bottom of the pile" of the business year.
"It's scary," Kline said. "I know what January and February are like from the last 10 years . . . Nothing's showing it's going to be any better."
Vordo is a little more optimistic. "I think it [the economy] has deifinitely at least hit bottom and leveled out," he said.
"I don't think it's going to get much worse. . . . But I don't think it"s going to skyrocket back."