Santa Maria area businesses reporting strong holiday shopping sales

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Many Santa Maria Valley businesses are reporting strong sales for the holiday shopping season.

In Orcutt, Company's Coming owner Rachel Hernandez Buchanan reported recent sales have been record-breaking.

"This holiday season has been amazing," said Hernandez Buchanan."We've had a record-breaking November and December, which is huge for a business that's been around this long."

She said she is "blown away" at the support the 40-plus-year-old business is receiving from the community.

"People I think are excited to have a place to shop that's in their community," said Hernandez Buchanan, who bought the gift shop just two months ago. "It's surpassed any thought or goal I had for Company's Coming. It's been a dream."

In Santa Maria, Flower Carriage By Ms. Cardel is also have an unexpected surge in sales.

"This holiday season, it's been busy," said owner Susana Cardel. "It's Amazing. It's surprised me."

Cardel, who has owned the flower shop and gift store since 2008 has a pretty good hunch why she's seeing a bump up in business.

"During the past years, it was not that busy. A lot of people traveling, a lot of people going to visit family, so this year there's a call of customers calling saying we're not going anywhere," said Cardel. "They say, we're staying home. We need to send flowers to our parents or to our family.

Some customers have pointed out they had made a concerted effort this year to shop at locally-owned stores.'

"I want to support my community," said Victoria Atkinson, while shopping in Company's Coming. "Costco is never going to go out of business. These guys potentially if they don't have the support of the community, we could lose them. I treasure small local businesses like this."

The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce said many other businesses are also experiencing robust sales this season around the area.

"So many of them have found ways to adapt, to find ways to interact safely with their customers, maybe change up their product mix, or how they deliver products," said Chamber President & CEO Glenn Morris. "Just those little tweaks, a lot of creativity, a lot of sticktoitiveness."

The rise in sales for area shops comes as the same time the Chamber has been promoting local businesses through its recent “Shop on Us!” campaign.

The two-week long promotion ended Monday encouraged residents to support area businesses by submitting selfies and photos of receipts from local purchases.

Photos were entered into a contest that award winners up to $200.

"I think they've been a lot of fun. It's been neat to see the engagement and the comments that come back over the social media," said Morris. "I think that we've really discovered that his community appreciates community and appreciates their local businesses and are trying their best to help them stay alive and active."

Morris is hoping residents will continue to direct their money to local businesses long after the Christmas season is over.
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"It doesn't end," said Morris. "The need for support locally doesn't end on Christmas. It will continue for weeks and months after. We just encourage people to again find a way to support a local business, do it safely, we want everybody to stay healthy. When there's a way to support a local business choose that first."