Kelsey Stankard was perusing a row of albums in the rock section of Pitchfork Records on Friday with her sister, Allison, when something caught her eye.
“Oh, awesome,” she said, holding up a Manchester Orchestra’s record, A Black Mile to the Surface. “Did you see this?” Allison walked over excitedly to take a closer look.
The kids’ father, Harold Stankard, called over to them across the store. He had a stack of records – half were holiday presents, half were albums he was hoping to add to his personal record collection.
“This place is really cool,” he said to them. “They have one of the best selections I’ve seen.”
“We love doing this as a family, just going to record stores,” Kelsey, who was now eyeing an album by Vampire Weekend, explained.
The landscape of holiday shopping has changed drastically in the last decade as shoppers increasingly do a bulk of their browsing and purchasing online.
In February, the United States Commerce Department reported that the total market share of online retail sales in the country was higher than in-store sales for the first time in history. According to figures from Adobe, American shoppers racked up a total of $9.4 billion in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving alone.
However, none of that draw to online shopping was evident downtown on Friday afternoon. Shop owners said the day had been one of the busiest of the season.
Those who continue to shop in stores say part of the reason is for the social experience of shopping. They enjoy the holiday atmosphere or spending a day with loved ones.
Kelsey, in her 20s, said when she’s shopping alone, she does a lot of ordering online because its easy. However, there is something special about shopping with other people.
“I think a lot of it comes from the surprise, not knowing what you’ll find every time,” she said. “You find things and they start conversations with the people around you.”
Jennifer Mead, of Concord, who was shopping downtown Friday with her daughter, Rene Lanteigne, agreed.
“It’s an experience. You get together and you shop,” Mead said. “We’ve had a nice day. We had breakfast and now we’re walking around, enjoying Main Street.”
Mead said she seeks out smaller, local stores, especially shops that sell handmade items. She said she and her daughter spent the morning looking at handmade earrings and stationary at Marketplace New England and Who Doesn’t Want That?
“It gives charm and interest to a town,” she said.
“It’s so much more personal,” Lanteigne said, agreeing.
In Concord, a generation grew up knowing that social shopping space as the Steeplegate Mall. But in recent years, the mall has declined. Less than 15 of nearly 60 storefronts remain. Bon-Ton left the mall last year, and a charter school moved in. Sears is going out of business now. The food court is empty.
At the Steeplegate Mall on Friday night, a handful of shoppers were walking around. A Santa photo station was set up, but there were no customers. Santa paced back and forth in front of the Christmas display.
Michael Anthony was sitting on a bench outside, waiting for his girlfriend to finish shopping in a pop-up calendar store around 5 p.m. The shop is one of a few stores in the mall that open for the Christmas season, and close after the holiday.
“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” he said, of the mall’s current condition. “This place used to be slammed – it was packed with people. This was place was unbelievably fun. It was so in the Christmas spirit. But not anymore.”
Anthony was a manager at Radio Shack in the Steeplegate Mall. He said being at the mall used to be a meaningful part of his Christmas season.
“It’s sad to see that they’re not carrying on and being able to keep the traditional Christmas going. It’s such a good feeling. It’s like a blessing to come up and have a nice mall to shop in,” he said. “You enjoy talking to people. It’s hands-on.”
“Back when I was a kid, going to the mall was huge. It was an event. You had to dress up, you got yourself something to eat. It’s part of the experience of shopping,” he added.
However, as the mall has declined, in Concord’s downtown, businesses have been expanding. A key to staying relevant, business owners say, is creating a shopping experience with many options for customers.
Gibson’s Bookstore is one example. Owner Michael Herrmann joined forces with Laura Miller, owner of Imagination Village, a few years ago to move his bookstore to a larger space and sell educational toys, games and puzzles, along with books. He also opened up a second location of the popular Concord coffee spot, True Brew, inside.
“There’s a strong movement toward localism,” Herrmann told the Monitor when he was expanding his business. “There’s been pressure to live life online, and there’s pressure pushing back to seek more authentic parts of life and to get away from sitting behind a desk all day.”
Cindy Ferguson of Concord was shopping in Gibson’s on Friday. She had a pile of paperback books in one arm, and three shopping bags in the other. Ferguson said she’d been making the rounds to a few of her favorite local stores.
She bought a pair of shearling slippers from Joe King, candles and Swedish cookies from The Viking House and had made a stop for jewelery at League of NH Craftsmen.
“It’s festive. It is nice to walk around a see people, see the decorations on the street,” she said. “It gets you in the spirit.”
She said she planned to bring her daughter downtown with her on Christmas Eve.
“We’ll walk around and just do some last-minute impulse buying for people, things that catch your eye,” she said. “It’s nice to have these businesses here, and if people don’t shop them, they’re not going to make it.”
Next door, Joyce Whiting, of Manchester, was shopping with a friend at Who Doesn’t Want That? after a lunch at Willows Plant-Based Eatery. She said she does most of her shopping online. Part of the rea sons for that is that she doesn’t have stores near where she lives that have the kind of inventory she’s looking for. They’ve all gone out of business.
“I like the variety of online, and the ease of it, I know I’m going to get what I need,” she said. “Seeing a Main Street that is so alive like this, it does make you want to support it and shop in stores more.”