Despite the recent economic downturn, many Monadnock region business owners are getting a boost this holiday season, thanks in part to a growing push to buy local.

An increasing number of local shops are involved in the Monadnock Buy Local movement, a network of locally owned and independent businesses encompassing 34 towns in the Monadnock region. Monadnock Buy Local is focused on creating awareness to shift holiday shopping habits to local businesses from big conglomerates. They suggest even small changes, such as doing at least 10 percent of holiday shopping in local shops.

And some stores have decided to take other measures to help expand their client base and tap into the local shopping movement. Maryann Mullett of Harvest Thyme Herbs in Dublin has started, along with several other small businesses, a “round robin shop hop,” that leads tours around local stores.

The tradition is a holdover from last year, although proceeds were not as robust this time around. With sales down 20 percent from the same event last year, Mullett and her husband decided to participate in a second regional event called Catch the Spirit during the weekend after Thanksgiving.

“It was very successful,” said Mullett. “It’s the first one we’ve done, so there’s nothing to compare it to, but all and all we were pleased. When you network and work together as a group like that, it helps everybody.”

Mullet said that sales are doing a little better than last year, but not by much, adding that last year had been the most financially robust that the store had ever had, increasing by about 10 percent from two years ago.

“Our holiday season is going really well this year. The push to shop locally is really helping. It helped last year, and it helped this year. It’s a really nice feeling.”

Mullett also noted that certain items were not selling as well as they had in past years. She said people are taking a more pragmatic view toward shopping, buying practical items and presents that people can use.

Annette Williams, owner of Fawn’d Memories of Jaffrey, also participated in the Catch the Spirit event, and said that while she’s also noticed a shift in consumer spending toward practical items, her overall sales have held steady. Her big-ticket items, such as furniture, have continued to sell at its normal rate.

“My business is up a little bit,” said Williams. “Maybe 18 or 20 percent over last year’s sales through the holidays.”

Williams said that this is only the second year that her store — which specializes in consignment and home décor but also stocks smaller items such as soaps, candles and maple syrup — has been in operation. The emphasis of the smaller pieces is on locally crafted wares, with food items made in Manchester, and soaps made by a woman in Dublin.

“I try to pull in New England stuff,” said Williams, adding that the recent push to buy locally had positively affected her business. “It’s making people more aware, most definitely,” she said.

For Ava Marie’s Chocolates in Peterborough, the holiday season has always been the busiest time of the year since owner Susan Mazzone opened the store in 2005, and, according to story manager Jackie Donovan, sales this year are up.

Donovan said all the chocolate is handmade on site, and much of the other inventory is also made locally or in the New England area. “That’s one of the joys of buying local,” she said. “You know that what you’re getting is fresh and not been packaged for a long time.”

John Sepe, owner of MindFull Books and Ephemera in Jaffrey, also said that he was having good holiday sales. Sepe said that his store is very community-oriented, hosting community music events and renting out the front room for events and potlucks.

So his involvement in both Monadnock Buy Local and Plaid Friday, a movement to buy locally on the day after Thanksgiving with storeowners and customers wearing plaid shirts to show support, was a natural extension of his business. Sepe said that the event was great fun, as well as a great success. Joseph’s Coat, a locally-owned Peterborough business, reported that they had done double the amount of business on Plaid Friday as they had on the day after Thanksgiving the year before.

The trick, Sepe says, is weathering the oscillations of the market. “In the 1990s and early 2000s, people were overspending,” he said, “and now we’ve gone completely the other way. We need a happy medium. We’re not making what we were eight or 10 years ago, but that wasn’t right either.”

“We need to work on community,” he said. “I’m confident, maybe from 40 years off doing this that we’ll be okay. It just won’t be easy. Nowadays, you’re working at 200 percent to get what you got with 80 percent before.”

Sepe added that the community should try to pull in tourism and not just rely on the support of people in the area, though he felt that was equally important.

Not all stores have had such a good experience this holiday, however. Jessica Vanderkern, owner of The Vintage Rose Boutique and Botanicals in Jaffrey, said that her business has been suffering throughout the traditional shopping season. She said the store’s sales are down 35 percent for the whole year, and down 60 percent from last Christmas. “And 60 percent is a lot,” she said. “I would say this is the slowest holiday season I’ve ever had.”

December is the store’s busiest month, normally, said Vanderkern, but this year, she has noticed that people just aren’t spending as much as they used to. “I haven’t seen a pick up at all, it could be any other month,” said Vanderkern, who has operated the business for the past seven years.

Due to the disappointing year and slow holiday sales, Vanderkern said, she’s decided to close the store permanently. “It was something we were talking about for awhile, and this was the final nail,” she said. “We decided to see how Christmas went, and it didn’t, so we’re going.”

Vanderkern said the decision was made the weekend before Christmas, and she expects the store to be completely closed by Feb. 1.

“I’m going to do something where I get paid,” she said. “I figure that keeps it wide open.”

This article appears in the Dec. 27, 2011, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.