Most merchants in Nevada County appear to be fairly happy with their holiday shopping season. Susan Amick, with the Grass Valley Downtown Association, says more people were out at stores, after two years of COVID restrictions and uncertainty. She owns Foothill Mercantile…

click to listen to Susan Amick

Both Amick and the Executive Director of the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, Stuart Baker, mentioned clothing as a popular gift item…

click to listen to Stuart Baker

And there was also a greater boost this year from more normal-looking crowds at Victorian Christmas. Nationwide, holiday sales rose seven-point-six percent, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse. That’s a slower pace than the eight-point-five-percent increase from a year earlier, when shoppers began spending the money they’d saved during the early part of the pandemic.But the group had predicted seven-point-one percent this season. Clothing sales rose by over four-percent, while jewelry and electronics dipped around five-percent. Meanwhile, online sales jumped over 10-percent, compared to in-person spending of over six-percent.