LAC LA BICHE - With Christmas a month away, Lac La Biche and area residents have been looking for holiday shopping help from local businesses, and local merchants are ready.
Jordi Larocque at Warehouse One said so far this Christmas season, slippers, pajama sets, ceramic mugs, and gift cards have been best sellers at the local clothing business.
These accessories-and more-have have been selling steadily in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
“It’s been great…it’s been really busy and steady and all that,” Larocque said. “We sold a lot of gift cards and just a lot of like pajama sets and all that.”
Like other businesses in Lac La Biche, Warehouse One has been putting in large orders of stock to have on the shelves throughout the Christmas season.
“We have been ordering like crazy,” she said.
At Lac La Biche Modern Wears, the Christmas season is also the cold-weather season for the long-serving clothing store. Owner Chris Palamaruk says the sales generally go up as the temperatures and the countdown to Christmas drops down.
“When they’re cold, they’re putting the clothes on,” Palamaruk said.
Construction rebound
From mid-April to the end of October, Modern Wears and two dozen other local shops were affected by the second phase of the three-phase $32.5 Main Street Revitalization Project that closed off vehicle traffic to a main part of the community’s downtown core.
When asked how she sees the Christmas season now that the downtown construction project has been completed along the front of her store, Palamaruk believes it’s going to bring in more customers looking for warm clothing and hot deals.
Terry Moghrabi at Lac La Biche Sporting Goods says December is one of the family-run store’s busy months. He says the store, that has been operating for more than 50 years in the community, has a selection that ranges from stocking stuffers to outdoor winter recreation ideas. So far this season, Moghrabi says hockey equipment and an early interest in ice fishing and snowmobiling gear has been popular. Although the store has a wide selection of items, from Christmas ornaments to side-by-sides, he says customers who are undecided are also finding their selection of gift cards or gift certificates as good options.
“Gift cards have become a lot more prevalent the last few years for sure,” Moghrabi said.
Like other local retailers, Moghrabi hopes the season will bring in more sales and more customers looking for great local selection, great local prices and great local service.
Marwan Smaiel at Smiley’s in Lac La Biche says the long-running retail business offers a variety of toys and games in their toy department, selling a variety of popular brand-name toys, including dolls, toy trucks, as well as the iconic colourful building block toy Lego.
“Our Lego department has a lot of great selection,” Smaiel told Lakeland This Week, adding that Smiley’s has been gearing up for the Christmas season by getting Lego and other in-demand toys on the shelves to be ready for when customers come to by purchase them. “We’ve been putting as much stock as we can on the shelves that all the kids want and all the parents want. All the big toy brands that we can find, we put on the shelves.”
With many local folks out and about in search of Christmas gifts, sales have been busier lately. And that’s good news for his business which was also affected by the ongoing Main Street construction project for most of the year.
“We’ve had a really good response from the community…lots of people have been shopping local which we really appreciate,” Smaiel said.
Having the construction completed, Smaiel said, is an improvement for the community and local business.
“It’s definitely a lot better than what it was,” he said.
The Lac La Biche downtown business sector is home to more than 60 retail and service outlets. Many will begin extended holiday hours in the weeks ahead.