Merchants assess the Summer of 2007
Customers wealthy and cordial, but the season shrinks
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
One of the biggest topics among the island's business community is the continually changing face of downtown. Stores are closing or moving, buildings are on the market and merchants once taken for granted as lasting indefinitely are disappearing.

Now that Labor Day 2007 has come and gone and the high season is over, long-established business owners took time to reflect on how changes have affected them, on today's customer attitudes, on trends in shoulder season activity and consumer desires. Many remarked on how much friendlier shoppers have become, that the spring and fall seem

slower than in years past, how local and national

competition dictates their inventory and, in some cases, how an evolution of their workforce has been necessary to meet their needs.

"I think the season has changed; it's much shorter. Things don't really get into gear until July 4 and this week it was really winding down," said Mitchell's Book Corner owner Mimi Beman. "I think the nature of the customer has changed somewhat. We have the billionaires, but not all come in my shop. A lot of my local customer base is shrinking - some of them are dying off or they're moving. They're either unable to keep up with the high price of living on Nantucket or the change to Nantucket's character or they're going online to shop. The other thing is, I don't see what we used to call day trippers in the high season anymore. It's just too expensive here. It's just out of control, so you have a different type of customer."

Beman also observed how evening shopping has diminished significantly from years ago.

"There used to be an excitement and a real sense of community in downtown Nantucket at night," she recalled. "Now, because of dinner parties, cocktail parties and benefits there's too much going on. The nights of the band concerts and families walking around with ice cream are gone. The nights have died and are definitely not what they used to be. It used to be fun."

While some employers hire more foreign workers these days than in the past, Beman has been able to get by well enough by supplementing her year-round staff with college and high school students, often the children of summer residents who have living accommodations. In the winter Beman needs few assistants because as time goes on there is less and less traffic in town.

"Winter business is really off. If business is down people start closing, but if they close it's worse for people who are still open," she said. "I think the force of our center is weakening. It's been really hard, and I may have to close a couple of days a week this winter. That has changed - I've been open year-round for nearly 40 years."

Avis Medawar, owner of Vis a Vis, said this year her American college student staff outnumbered the foreign workers, an unusual occurrence these days. She, too, notices that shoulder seasons are slower than a decade ago so she does not have the need to hire people with extended visas. She anticipated that Labor Day weekend would essentially conclude evening business at her store until next spring.

"I also think there is a tremendous amount of competition in the women's clothing area. I believe there are 26 stores catering to women," said Medawar. "The competition in a way is bigger than in a small town with a year-round population of 25,000 people, and it's hard to make money from the middle of May stretching into September. It's a gamble.

"Maybe it was more laid back years ago, but that's irrelevant," she continued. "Things change and it was never laid back. I work as hard as I did 10 years ago, if not harder, because of the competition - not just here but from all around the country. I think Nantucket still has very special shopping and we're busy because we're in the center of Main Street and sell a variety of things with a huge price range. I want to appeal to everyone who comes here. You need to change with the times, and we are constantly traveling and reading and following the trends. There is a huge competition in the American market. The world is changing so you've got to change here, but I still love Nantucket."

Phil Osley, Sr. has retained the funkiness of his Sunken Ship since it opened in 1959 but has diversified his stock and finds business is consistent for him even when some Main Street stores appear nearly empty of shoppers.

"Our store gets busier every year. It's a 'touch me' store with the old wooden floors. It's an old-time store," said Osley, who only hires local high school kids and college students to help during the summer. "We're starting to carry tools now. We're almost turning into a five and ten and almost have the same stuff as Marine Home Center. You can get shaving cream here, and shoelaces. You can get a toothbrush here. People don't come to the Sunken Ship to buy aspirin, but we have it. We sell glue - a lot of people don't know that because we don't advertise it. The lines are long enough already. We sell a lot more than we used to, and if people move out [from downtown] we'll take up the slack."

Don Freedman moved his Expressions of Don Freedman from Old South Wharf to Centre Street this year, but after 26 summers as a businessman he notices differences that have little to do with location. For one thing, his wealthy clients are friendlier and more down to earth than years back, he said.

"I used to see a little bit of snobbery. Now people tell me about themselves and I tell them about me," he said. "Twenty-six years ago it was 'Boy, bring this out to my slip.' I used to hear that a lot."

Freedman also notices that customers today are well-educated and their tastes seem more sophisticated. Rather than wanting 'The Nantucket Look' they are interested in unique items, but while he sees a greater sales volume than years ago he, as with others, views summer foot traffic and evening shopping as being on the wane.

"It seems a little less busy [with people] than 10 years ago, but some of that was not desirable anyway because many day tripppers were lookers rather than buyers, or if they bought, it was more novelty items," he said. "There also used to be more evening business. Many stores can't stay open because of staffing or they're too tired to justify the lack of traffic. We used to have crowds strolling the streets downtown."

Freedman is among merchants relying on foreign workers because he said where he once had 50 college students seeking employment there were only about two this year.

"When they do come they want to know what the benefits are and how many days off they'll have. If I ask them if they'll change a lightbulb they look at me like I'm crazy," he said. "The foreign kids will work hard and do whatever they need to do to keep their employer happy. After the college kids we had the Irish kids, and they were great but they don't need that experience anymore because their own country's economy has improved. I'm 69. If I couldn't get the foreign kids I'd probably be open six hours a day."

Jane Briard is in her 28th season as manager of Four Winds Gifts, another shop that has maintained its simplicity and rusticity and carries mostly toys and inexpensive souvenier items.

"When I first started working here it was all college kids, then it was the Irish and the Jamaicans, and then the shoulder season slowed and we didn't need them. Now we're pretty much back to college kids," said Briard. "We get more day trippers here than others do. I don't think there's another shop downtown like this. I have people who come in every year and a lot of local people, too."

But Briard not only sees the changing face of downtown, she hears about it from customers who have taken notice of the shifts.

"It's like you never know where someone is going to be," she said. "People come in and say, 'Thank goodness you're still here.' We're pretty consistent because we're practically the only gift store. There have been a few who say Nantucket is very crowded now and that there are more people here, but it's like that everywhere else. Most have the attitude that things will change. We're busy pretty much 24/7, but could we keep the business if we didn't own the building?"

Liz Winship, owner of Nantucket Looms, believes a decrease in summer renters has affected shopping habits, although her business is good.

"The thing I notice is that Nantucket had more of a rental time in the summer than people who came for a whole season. It's a different type of buying now," she said. "Instead of being here for a week or two weeks and you had a rainy day and people felt they had to get in and do some shopping - you had that buzz - now it's more spread out. There is definitely an increase in wealth and you see that in spending. It's not just somebody who is coming in for a little gift. I see more young people with money. Couples with young children will come in to order furniture for their house back home because they have that time. And people aren't snapping their fingers and insisting to be waited on."

Winship's staff is one-third foreign, she said, noting that when she started at The Looms in 1974 the entire workforce was college students, whereas this was the first year in more than a decade she had even one college student apply. "Of my 10 [employees], three are Bulgarians. They're not only smart but they're hard workers, and if they're not here on a long season they are here year-round."

The other change Winship notices now that her store is on Federal Street instead of Main Street is that people visiting the shop are there as genuinely interested customers.

"When I was on Main Street it was like people just walked in but they were not necessarily buying. They were like lemmings," she said laughing. "When I moved [the business] became a destination. People are there to buy, not to ask for change for the bus or what time the Whaling Museum opens. But change is good. You get more competitive and review what you're doing. It's still beautiful here and people fall in love with it."

Trish Bridier at Murray's Toggery agrees with her colleagues that competition has increased, especially for retail clothiers as new businesses join the scene to take the place of the bygone department and dry goods stores, the hardware store, the five and ten and others.

"I think there are a lot more boutiques than there used to be and more seasonal businesses," she said. "We have more updated items, especially in the ladies' department, because customers are looking for different styles than they used to. They seem overall wealthier - a lot of wealthy young people. They want dressier rather than casual things."

Bridier also hires several foreign workers for the summer who are able to stay well into the fall as college students cannot, but noted that that can become a problem if they have difficulty finding housing. More of concern to her and her fellow business owners is the way downtown is changing, and they question what will happen to the lifeblood of the island's center when the number of closed and darkened storefronts increases in the winter.

"Having Congdon's Pharmacy go will create a different atmosphere in town," she predicted.