First of two parts<\/p>\n
Forty-two-year-old Vicky Sers Nicholas, a resident of Lower Gualo Rai, scanned racks of toys at the Joeten Shopping Center in Susupe, while holding an infant dress that she would give her godchild as a Christmas present.<\/p>\n
A usual spender every holiday season, Nicholas said she decided to cut back on expenses this Christmas, holding off plans to shop on Guam, which she did last year.<\/p>\n
Sers Nicholas said she would spend about $2,000 to $3,000 for the holidays, much less than some $8,000 she spent last Christmas season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not buying electronic games anymore,\u201d she said. This year, she said she would rather buy family games to save on cost and yet spend a good time with her family during the holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Christmas, we\u2019re more careful with what we\u2019re buying. We try to get more for what we buy. We want to make sure that they have value,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
The same refrain was echoed by others, opting for holiday spending that is more modest in scale than last year\u2019s. Forty-year-old Bonnie Sagana, a Filipino contract worker, said he would slice his budget for the holidays by half. Last year, Sagana claimed spending about $600 for gifts and noche buena. He said he would only spend about $300 this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are uncertain if the economy will decline due to the anticipated hardship by the garment sector,\u201d he said, noting the potential impact of the World Trade Organization\u2019s lifting of quota restrictions on apparel, the CNMI\u2019s multi-million-dollar industry.<\/p>\n
For Sagana, however, Christmas spending must go on. \u201cWe can\u2019t reason out our difficulties for our godchildren. Christmas is for children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series of fuel price increases this year have impacted on prices of consumer products. Aware of the situation, 40-year-old Kagman resident Lily said she started saving a couple of bucks even before the holidays so as not to spoil her Christmas spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually spend for clothes for the kids and not just for toys,\u201d Lily said. \u201cWe need to save for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily\u2019s savings allowed her to allot over $1,000 for her holidays shopping, about $700 more than the amount she spent last year.<\/p>\n
Lower prices<\/p>\n
To attract shoppers, different stores on Saipan have offered their products at substantial discounted prices.<\/p>\n
Payless Shoe Source have placed a giant sign that bears the catchphrase \u201cup to 70% off\u201d in front of its recently opened San Jose branch.<\/p>\n
The sign attracted Janice Schulmeyer, who resides in nearby Chalan Kiya, to check out the store and spend a few bucks for a new pair of shoes. Some items, which used to be sold at over $30, carried tags that peg their new prices at less than $10.<\/p>\n
Papaya, a ladies\u2019 boutique located right at the heart of the Garapan tourist district, has special orange price tags on apparel, which are being offered at discounted rates. Shoppers swarmed the store Saturday for clothes that were selling for about $10, less than the regular price of more than $20.<\/p>\n
Bigger stores have slated promotional activities, which they advertise in dailies to attract shoppers. Town House department store offers up to 40 percent discount on prices of retail items in its \u201cCustomer Appreciation Sale\u201d that runs from Dec. 17 to 24. The promotion includes 40- and 30-percent discount on prices of all shoe and clothing items.<\/p>\n
Townhouse general manager Mike Lamoreux said the promotions were intended to stimulate consumer spending, after a modest sales turnout during the Thanksgiving holidays.<\/p>\n
Lamoreux said that, while fuel price increases generally affected the prices of retail items due to increased shipping costs, the store had to reduce its profit margin from these items. He bared plans of conducting an \u201cafter-Christmas clearance sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s basically the lifeblood of the business\u2014to attract people to your store,\u201d Lamoreux said.<\/p>\n
Joeten Shopping Center offers 15- to 50-percent discount on retail items. Besides popularizing the \u201cEarly Bird Sale\u201d when the store offers discounted prices for morning shoppers, Joeten conducted last Saturday the \u201cOne Day Super Sale,\u201d wherein substantial price discounts were offered all-day long.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody likes to save money,\u201d said Joeten general manager Mike Troupe, adding that Joeten would run promotions until Christmas.<\/p>\n
High sales turnout<\/p>\n
Troupe said Joeten\u2019s sales appear to improve compared with those of last year\u2019s holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, it\u2019s good. This year, it\u2019s better,\u201d Troupe said. \u201cThe economy seems to be gradually improving. They\u2019re [shoppers] more confident than the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although rising fuel costs resulted in higher prices for select retail merchandise, Troupe said Joeten managed to attract customers by pegging prices at minimal profit margin levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe attract customers by bringing the right product all the time, [including] the right clothing, [and by having] good display and a clean store,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He also said the number of tourist shoppers increased this year, adding to the local populace that patronize Joeten.<\/p>\n
Troupe said Joeten\u2019s Early Bird Sale last Dec. 11 easily became the company\u2019s \u201cbest sales day of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Townhouse\u2019s sales have also been improving compared with the same period last year, according to Lamoreux.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better than last year,\u201d Lamoreux said. \u201cThey\u2019re [shoppers] are spending more.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said shoppers these days could buy more merchandise due to substantial discounts on price tags, reducing profit margin on retail items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forty-two-year-old Vicky Sers Nicholas, a resident of Lower Gualo Rai, scanned racks of toys at the Joeten Shopping Center in Susupe, while holding an infant dress that she would give her godchild as a Christmas present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}