Small businesses eye St. Patrick's Day gold

CHICAGO, US:American retailers, including some aggressive small business owners, are banking on a boffo St. Patrick's Day to shake off the February blahs.

"St. Patrick's Day is almost as big as Christmas is for us," said Kristin Olsen, owner of the Celtic Attic, a primarily online seller of assorted Irish memorabilia that includes Claddagh pendants, key chains, shamrock wall hangings and Irish music.

The entrepreneur, whose ancestry includes Irish and Norwegian roots, keeps her website full of St. Patty's Day goodies throughout the year, but said she kicks into overdrive in January, stocking up on additional items to pique customers' interests well ahead of the March 17 holiday.

"People start buying in early February," said Olsen, who brings in roughly half her yearly revenue during the months leading up to Christmas and St. Patrick's Day. "The last two weeks before St. Patrick's Day we get a huge push and it's insanely crazy."

Olsen said she was looking to make up for depressed sales last year, when revenue at her small, family-run business in Bremerton, Washington fell about 30 percent from its peak a few years earlier to barely $100,000. She has also spent time on road, taking her wares to Celtic-themed trade shows and Highland Games to boost sales in the offseason.

Hurt by a recessionary 2009, sellers of everything from hand-knit Aran sweaters and Waterford crystal to St. Patty's-themed t-shirts are tapping Americans' large-scale annual celebration of all things Irish. By doing so, they're hoping to keep the green rolling into their pocketbooks a wee bit longer.

"I'm very busy," said Anne McKeown, owner of Anne's Irish Knits in Evanston, Illinois, a brick-and-mortar seller of hand-knit sweaters made from distinctive Irish wools such as Bainin, as well as hats, capes, scarves and other Irish apparel. McKeown was preparing to fulfill last-minute requests to outfit some local marchers in Chicago's St. Patrick's Day parade, who were on the hunt for sweaters and other items to complete their costumes.

"It's definitely getting bigger," she said of the annual American celebration of what remains primarily a religious holiday in her native Ireland.

CONSUMER SPENDING UP

According to the National Retail Federation, total U.S. spending related to St. Patrick's Day was expected to reach $3.44 billion this year, up from an estimated $3.29 billion last year. The NRF said young adults aged 18 to 24 would likely help push the economy out of its recessionary slump by spending an average of $40.18 each on the holiday, up from $36.05 last year.

"I think St. Patrick's Day has become more popular among consumer retailers that use it as a way to put the merchandise out right after Valentine's Day," said Kathy Grannis, an NRF spokeswoman. "There really isn't anything else they could put out that makes seasonal sense."

Besides merchants specializing in Irish-themed goods, general retailers, too, were leveraging the event. Zazzle, a privately-run online seller of custom and pre-designed t-shirts and other gifts, got started earlier in the year with a discount on holiday-themed shirts and then followed up with reduced shipping. The site recently touted a range of shirts adorned with irreverent slogans such as "rub my shamrocks for luck," "Saint Patrick is my homeboy," and "I wanna know where da gold at."

The Redwood City, California company, which doesn't disclose sales, was selling 100 percent more St. Patrick's Day goods this year than last, said Michael Karns, the company's marketing director.

"This is actually the second year in a row that we've had a pretty substantial effort on our website," he said. "We've definitely seen the popularity of St. Patrick's Day take off."

Even some unlikely suspects were trying to cash in. In Portland, Maine, Tap Tapas, a small group of iPhone application developers, was seeing renewed interest in "iShots St. Paddy's," a random drink generator it developed on a lark last year. For just 99 cents, the app promised to "impress and amuse your friends while showing off your Irish side."

"We partake in the festivities though none of us claims heritage," said Michael De Souza, one of the developers, who is of Portuguese descent.

Bars and restaurants, the old standbys, were expected to draw the lion's share of profits with their usual rowdy crowds during the blowout celebrations beginning a few days ahead of the holiday. But they, too, have been trying to get the maximum bang for the buck.

In Pensacola, Florida, McGuire's Irish Pub, one of several long-standing regional establishments founded and run by the Martin family, generated some early buzz with a pre-St. Patrick's Day run. The annual event drew nearly 11,000 runners, many who later consumed the restaurant's steaks, burgers and custom-brewed ales, which were introduced for retail distribution in time for the holiday.

"Everybody loves to wear green," said second-generation proprietor Amy Martin. "It's important to us and important to our servers and it starts the seasons. It goes right into spring break and then into summer."