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Burr Ridge retailers enjoyed healthy holiday sales
Jennifer Santoyo is the manager for Clark Street Sports in Burr Ridge Village Center. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 11, 2013 2:21AM
BURR RIDGE — This holiday season seems to have been a happy one for local retailers.
While it will be a while before true sales statistics are computed, area retailers report business was up this year in the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
“Throughout the season, everyone was busy, especially the restaurants,” said Kristy Tramontana of the Burr Ridge Village Center.
The shopping center tries to keep a finger on the pulse of the mall by counting the number of cars that enter Burr Ridge Village Center Drive. In December 2012, 128,609 cars entered the street that holds the stores of Burr Ridge Village Center. That’s more than 6,000 more than in December 2011, Tramontana said.
Tramontana said Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, was good to many local retailers.
That includes Personalization Mall, an online retailer with headquarters in Burr Ridge and one of the village’s biggest generators of sales tax.
Jeff Chun, vice president of marketing, said sales on the day after Thanksgiving were up about 40 percent over last year. Cyber Monday sales were up, too, from about $1 million in 2011 to $1.3 million this year.
“We did tend to see people shopping a little earlier this time around,” he said.
But Personalization Mall saw another sales jump in the final days before Christmas.
“We had all hands on deck to get those orders out,” said Chun.
Sales in November and December typically account for about 40 percent of Personalization Mall’s annual sales.
At Clark Street Sports in the Village Center, the holiday rush got its start even before Black Friday. Manger Jennifer Santoyo said she was surprised at the business generated by the mall’s annual Jingle Mingle event, held Nov. 17.
“It drew a lot of business,” she said, and the customers kept coming throughout the November and December.
“We did really well,” she said.
Miriam Huntley, manager of Kohler Water Spa in Burr Ridge, said sales of gift cards, spa products and spa services generated a double-digit spike in sales over last December.
“It’s definitely a positive increase for us,” she said.
A newcomer to the Burr Ridge Village Center, Lori Donofrio, owner of the Just Ducky gift boutique, said she didn’t know what to expect from the store’s first holiday season. She was pleasantly surprised.
“Overall, it was really good,” she said. “I’m happy.”
The healthy holiday season carried over into Burr Ridge restaurant business, with restaurants like Topaz reporting increases in everything from holiday parties to carryout orders.
Becky Fleck of Topaz said sales of gift cards were nearly double in December 2012 over December 2011.
