Charleston, South Carolina — The holiday shopping season has begun, with economic trends indicating that customers across the United States and the Lowcountry are prepared to spend.
Mimi Striplin’s retail boutique, The Tiny Tassel, is experiencing its busiest week of the year.
“You will notice our Charleston wall and Charleston goods, which we use to showcase our city. So we enjoy seeing and expressing our culture through all of our designs, and we invite everyone to come and experience it here,” Striplin added.
This week offers numerous options for Christmas shopping: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. The days also offer opportunities to support local businesses.
Despite a difficult year, Striplin remains optimistic about sales.
“As a small business, I’m sure everyone’s hearing the words tariffs and just uncertainty and we faced all of that and everything from team turnover to unexpected tariffs and charges that were having to pay up front to get our inventory in,” she told me.
Striplin has a decade of company experience and has seen the scope of what the holiday shopping season entails.
“We’re still seeing customers show up and shop local and that brings me so much hope and it’s so encouraging because in all the uncertainty that we’ve seen as a small business this year, we have customers that are making a point to shop local and shop small and we want to continue that,” Striplin told me.
Record shopping numbers are expected.
According to the National Retail Federation, a record 186.9 million Americans plan to buy between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. This is a 3 million increase above last year’s numbers.
Dr. Mark Witte, an economics professor at the College of Charleston, is keeping an eye on Lowcountry patterns.
“The good news is that locally in Charleston and South Carolina more generally, we’re in a much better position than the national economy is,” according to Witte. “And so consumers in Charleston — the Charleston area are going to be more likely to spend than consumers in a part of the country that’s really seen some type of economic slowdown.”
Despite the federal government shutdown and the uncertain labor market, Witte stated that the term “consumption smoothing” will apply.
“Consumption smoothing effectively states that people tend to grow their consumption at more or less a predictable rate even if their income can be quite volatile,” the professor explained. “So, in South Carolina, we observe consumption growth of roughly 2.2% year on year. So, while some people may have temporarily lost access to SNAP assistance, and federal employees may have missed a payday or two, most people will delve into savings or begin borrowing through credit cards or other means.
Witte does not endorse going into debt for holiday shopping, but he does encourage supporting small companies.
“I would also recommend that if people are out shopping, they look at some of the little shops and retailers since many of them have seen the same type of national slow growth. As a result, many of those smaller enterprises rely heavily on this season to be profitable,” Witte explained.
The Tiny Tassel crew agrees with that message.
“Every order really, truly makes a difference for us whether it’s $5 or $500, we really feel that here as a team, and it allows us to continue investing in our team members, investing in our community,” Striplin told me.
