High hopes for phenomenal business over the Christmas and New Year’s period did not materialize for many Whistler retailers who rely predominately on tourist trade.
Several business owners said not only did the numbers fail to live up to the unrealistic expectations and hype for this millennium holiday period, but performance was actually down over last year, particularly for the period between Christmas and New Year which is traditionally rock-solid.
There is, however, still a general mood of optimism and an expectation end-of-season results will still match those of the record-breaking 1998/99 winter.
Bob Adams, Whistler Chamber of Commerce president and owner of the Grocery Store and the Upper Village Market, said his holiday business performance was more on par with two years ago than with last year. He said his businesses are tourist oriented and often reflect the number of actual visitors in the resort. “Business was strong leading up to a couple of days before Christmas and then we were down significantly through Christmas to about two days before New Year’s,” said Adams. “I have talked to a number of people in the business community and I think that trend was fairly general.”
He said two key factors likely influenced performance — resistance to aggressive millennium pricing plus the fact business executives likely deferred their holidays because of potential Y2K problems at their places of work.
“I think people decided not to come because of high costs and the feeling they were being gouged.”
But, said Adams, those who decided not to travel over Christmas and New Year’s will still likely come in January, February or March. “All the indicators I have seen show really strong visits from about the ninth of January. I am very optimistic and I think overall it will be a very good winter.”
That positive outlook is also prevalent with other business owners. Long-time Whistler retailer and councillor Dave Kirk said he too is hopeful about the remainder of the season.
“I am optimistic based on the information we have been given.” But he did say business was down this holiday season.
“Last year was a hard act to follow... in our business (sports shops) there’s always more competition it seems. The piece of pie gets thinner and thinner so it’s hard to compare with previous years but I have talked to people, like Doug Forseth (senior vice president of operations for Whistler-Blackcomb), and we know the numbers were definitely down for the four days after Christmas and that was reflected in sales for sure.”
Owner of Keir Fine Jewellery, David Campbell said the period leading up to and including Christmas was strong but things took a nose-dive between Christmas and New Year’s.
“I attribute it to a couple of things. I think a lot of senior management and executive types who normally come here over the Christmas period were instructed to stay closer to home this year. That plus the price-gouging by the hotels and the restaurants also scared people off,” said Campbell who traditionally does excellent trade in the post Christmas period.
“The skier visits were also way down and occupancy at the hotels was down.” Campbell is not complaining though. His pre-Christmas business exceeded his excellent record last year and for him, on a whole, December 1999 was better than December 1998.
Christie Peck, who manages the Gazebo Gift store, said the big numbers retailers were “psyched up for” never materialized.
“We set ourselves up for this huge rush and then it never happened. In general I think stores psyched up for an extremely busy period and the numbers — the people — just weren’t there,” she said. “That’s the feeling with everyone I have talked to in the stores. We were expecting more people to be here. I think a lot had to do with the fact the hotels were greedy. They wanted a minimum seven nights stay in some cases and they wanted $500 or $600 a room and people just can’t afford that,” said Peck. “I think the hotels did a real injustice to retail. I think people took this Year 2000 thing a little bit too far.”
IGA Plus owner Jim Chan blames media stories on high pricing in Whistler for the fact his grocery business was a little slow before Christmas. “I think it was due to all that negative press regarding people charging too much.” But he said business at IGA soon picked up to match trade last year.
Nesters, however, which relies less on the tourist trade, was taken by surprise this holiday period with sales surpassing an already excellent period last year. Nesters manager Bruce Stewart said he thinks the flip trend was because most Whistlerites opted to entertain and cook for parties at home this year instead of going out to hotels or restaurants.
“Christmas was ridiculously busy and so was New Year’s. I don’t think we could do more business. We are all pretty tired after all that,” said Stewart. “The majority of our business is local so I don’t worry too much when hotels say they are down. We still get the locals and the weekenders that come up.”
Retailer Dave Davenport, who represents the Core Commercial Committee on One Whistler, said the general feedback he has received is operators who rely on tourists found business extremely soft, particularly for the post Christmas period.
Rick Clare, owner of Whistler One Hour and chair of the Core Commercial Committee said he also felt business in the resort wasn’t what retailers had expected. “I think the numbers were down.” He said, however, the commercial committee will evaluate the holiday period at their Jan. 11 meeting and reach a consensus after which he will be better able to comment.
