According to the projections from her distributors, she said, this year’s Christmas season should be one of the best in years for the gourmet food business. She said gourmet food sells well even in leaner economic years because “it’s a way of combining necessity with luxury.”
Yet, the beautiful weather won’t be enough to help some vendors from areas of retail where there has been a trend of declining sales.
With demand for film and traditional cameras waning because of the growth of digital technology, the Ferrante-Dege workers aren’t too upbeat about their holiday prospects.
“[This year] couldn’t get much worse than last year,” said Hays.
Murphy also said the book market has been flat this year.
“The book industry has not been very hot this year,” he said. “The economy has not translated into more consumer spending.”
In the end, Murphy is only cautiously optimistic.
“We need more Harry Potters,” he said.