As Christmas shopping hits its peak, here’s what’s happening with Whatcom businesses
Here’s a roundup of recent retail activity in Whatcom County:
▪ It’s the final stretch for Christmas shopping season and busiest days are yet to come in Bellingham. A study done by Womply found that in Bellingham the Friday before Christmas is the ninth biggest revenue day in 2018, while the Saturday before Christmas was the second biggest revenue day.
The biggest shopping day for Bellingham in 2018? It was Sept. 25, according to Womply, which put together its rankings by analyzing transaction data. That was the day before Western Washington University started its fall session.
▪ The C Shop in Birch Bay has opened its candy shop for a few days leading up to Christmas. Along with being open this weekend, it will be open 2-6 p.m. Dec. 20-23. Along with the traditional candy, items include wine jells with wine from Mount Baker Vineyards and caramel corn.
▪ Avalon Records owner Chris Lamb announced on Facebook last week that he doesn’t plan to reopen the business, which was damaged by fire in July. Lamb said in the post that he’s looking to do something different than run the business, which was on Railroad Avenue.
▪ Bellingham continues to land on lists for best beer-drinking cities. SmartAsset ranked Bellingham 35th on its annual list, which looks at the number of breweries, average beers per brewery and average price for a pint.
The study put Bellingham’s average pint price at $4.75, which is lower than some cities (San Francisco’s average price was $7) but higher compared to others (Grand Rapids, Michigan came in at $3.25 a pint).
The top three cities in this study were Cincinnati, St. Louis and Portland, Oregon.
▪ Building permits were submitted to the city to build a 50-unit apartment building at 804 Dupont St., formerly home to St. John Glass. The building will be four stories tall and have commercial space on the ground floor.
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
