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Highlands Today

Holiday, winter season spurs business and hiring

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By MARC VALERO Highlands Today

Published: November 3, 2009

SEBRING - The summer doldrums are fading as retailers see more shoppers and hire extra workers for the anticipated holiday and seasonal surge later this month.
Home Depot sees brisk business from November through April, store manager Troy Doty said Monday.

You know the winter residents are back because sales of Damp Rid and air filters increase, he said.

"When our northern residents get back, they want to spruce up their yards so our garden department sales increases very significantly in November through April," Doty said. "It sounds weird because that's Florida's winter, but obviously with the influx of people, they want their yards to look nice and everything."
Paint sales also increase, and hardware sales increase in November and December due to Christmas, he said.

The process to hire part-time seasonal workers is starting now, Doty said.

Mark Tharp, owner of the Golden Corral restaurant in Lake Placid, said so far business has picked up about 15 percent from the slowest time of the year in Lake Placid, which is the five or six weeks after Labor Day,

"Right around Columbus weekend Oct. 10, 11 is when you start having a few northerners/snowbirds saying 'we're back,'" he said. "Here in Lake Placid it doesn't really explode until after Thanksgiving as far as sales."

People are returning to Lake Placid, but they go out of town on weekends to shop at the mall in Sebring or in Lakeland or Fort Myers, Tharp said. Business is about 80 percent better than the low point, during January, February and March.

The restaurant hired two extra part-time workers recently whose hours will increase to almost full time as it gets closer to Christmas, he said.

Some of the present staff members who are a little under employed - who wanted to work five days, but are working only four days - will start getting a shift added to their work week, Tharp said.

Beall's department store manager David Clubb said, "We are getting a slow increase now, but it's usually the week of Thanksgiving when we start to feel it."

The last cool spell about three weeks ago helped spur sales of winter clothes, but it's back hot again, he said.

Extra help is always brought in for the winter and holiday season, he noted.

"Right now I just brought back on six seasonal people who were here last year," he said. "Usually about the week before Thanksgiving we start some extra people."

Marshalls in Sebring doesn't hire extra workers for the winter or holidays, according to key carrier Addie Dobson.

"We don't do any seasonal hiring because we have to keep a certain quota all year round as far as employees, so we are pretty much set for the holidays," she said. "We are busier, but we do it with the same amount of people."

Some part-time workers will probably work an extra evening, Dobson said.

"Right after school starts, our business picks up," she said.

Heartland Workforce reported that there are some retail job openings, but it's a little early in the season for seasonal hiring. Openings for migrant/farm worker seasonal jobs are starting to come in.

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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