Even with a lifetime in retail, staking her company’s fortunes to an order sheet she has to fill out sometimes a year in advance has never sat well with Painted Door owner Avis Scaramucci. Throw in a dicey economy, and she has an even bigger lump in her throat.

“To be honest with you, it’s always made me nervous,” Scaramucci says. “This isn’t the first time the economy has slowed down some, but it’s the first time in quite a long time. It does make me nervous, but I’m also willing to take that step of faith.”

A leap of faith – that’s what metro retailers call their regular trips to markets in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and New York to procure product to sell over the next 12 months. Scaramucci says the economy has changed the landscape.

“Companies have less inventory, so you have to be far more specific with what you’re willing to commit to,” she says. “Companies are not wanting to invest in inventory right now.”

But retailers have to commit the majority of their buying dollars months in advance, and every store owner has his or her own philosophy. Even when news on the economy is bad, Scaramucci flies in the face of conventional retail wisdom.

“I do operate on the theory that if you don’t have it, you’re darn sure not going to make the sale. I’m never going to cut my nose off to spite my face,” she says.

In what can be a make-or-break time, she admits to a lot of trepidation about Christmas 2009. Business was down a small amount from 2008, but was “amazingly close.”

TARIFF TIFF
Teena Hicks Company saw a slight increase in sales this past Christmas, but began bracing for an overall decline in sales last year, well before the current administration took office. Hicks – who has been in Downtown retail for 20 years with son James Robert Hicks – scaled back on purchases by as much as 10% prior to 2009, and has continued do so.

With fine clothing items from all over the world, she has a more global outlook on the retail market. Some retailers she has become accustomed to dealing with when she heads to New York, Chicago and Atlanta weren’t around this year.

“Our only concern is our companies are under hardship because they couldn’t get bridge loans, and some of the vendors had a lot of financial problems,” Hicks says.

That inability to get credit forced some vendors to go under, further constricting the supply of fine goods available. Even before the credit crunch, Hicks says vendors who import were already fighting a lousy exchange rate, in addition to a near 24% tariff on foreign goods, resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“NAFTA has been painful for a lot of our companies here in America,” she says. “It enabled the Europeans to ship their products to Canada and Mexico with no tariff. If it comes to the U.S., it has a tariff. What did we do? We bought a lot of lines out of Canada because we can get the fabric from Italy … and we don’t have to pay the tariff.”

Hicks says those accustomed to having the very best selection need to realize that they may have to wait for some items that come from overseas.

She said her company saw a slight decrease in sales in 2007, and then an additional 5% drop in sales in 2008. Last year saw business decline by 10%.

“We bought less (at market),” Hicks said. “(This year) I don’t think we’ll be less profitable. I think we’ll be just about the same with profit because we work hard for it.”

Shelle Schaefer, owner of The French Cowgirl on Western Avenue, traveled to the gift and home market in Dallas in January and says attendance was down.

“General consensus I got from market this time was there were fewer people there, but they were buying more,” Schaefer says. For her store, she tries not to buy too far in advance – going more often to market and buying just two to three months in advance. Seven years into her business, her clientele is largely female and in the 28- to 50-year-old age group.

She noted that changing buying trends from her clients make her react differently at market.

“They may be a little more strained budget-wise,” Schaefer says.

photo/Shannon Cornman