Time was when no Elizabeth City merchant thought of displaying Christmas wares or making an advertisement appeal to Christmas shoppers until after Thanksgiving; but “them days are gone forever.”
Last week, and in fact the week before, one by one Elizabeth City stores began to fill their windows and some of their counters with Christmas suggestions and to preach on the shop early text in their advertisements.
Today you can hardly enter any store in the city that caters to Christmas trade without noticing either some Christmas display or at least some radical change in arrangement of stock in way of preparation for a showing of Christmas offerings.
Up to Saturday, however, there were still a few mighty good business men in Elizabeth City who were telling the ad-men something like this: “There’s no use to say shop early. People will not buy until the last minute no matter how much you advertise or what sort of display you put on.”
But the business done Saturday by the stores that are displaying and advertising their Christmas wares puts a Maxim silencer on all such statements. These stores were crowded all day Saturday, and on Saturday afternoon, with Christmas trade clerks already on duty, there were more customers in these stores than could be waited on. At Melick’s, for instance, the crowd resembled that of the week before Christmas. And Melick’s was not the only store that was crowded. There’s Mitchell’s, for instance, advertising in the want ad section of this issue for more sales people.
Those who have studied the Elizabeth City Christmas trade carefully will tell you that every year the number who lay their plans for Christmas givings early is growing larger, and that every year Christmas shopping begins just a little bit earlier than in the year preceding. This is a forcible illustration of the fact that constant reiteration of the shop early preachments is having its effect.
But undoubtedly the swing in the direction of early shopping this year has acquired more than normal momentum. Business is good, and that means that buying in all lines is heavy. The number of customers now thronging the stores to supply their needs in the way of regular lines of merchandise is a warning to Christmas shoppers that they must shop early in the day and early in the week as well as early in the season if they are looking for careful and painstaking service from the sales people in the stores.
Another thing is the factor in creating a desire to shop early. Elizabeth City merchants this year have prepared for an unusually heavy Christmas trade. But with cotton prices advancing as they have done and with favorable weather for harvesting the cotton crop of this section, there seems every reason to believe that Christmas buying will go not only beyond all records but also beyond all expectations. So thrifty and foresighted buyers are making their selections now before stocks are depleted.
Early buying is wise always, from a standpoint of service and satisfaction. Indications are that this year it will be wise also from a standpoint of economy. And, as Santa Claus, no doubt, has seen what’s going on and caught the shop early fever, the ad-man wants to suggest to the little folk of Elizabeth City that it is a wise youngster this year who writes his Christmas letter to old Santa early.
From The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday, November 26, 1948
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