Downtown Concord Post-Holiday Deals Hard to Find

While the big box stores are slashing prices and offering sales in an effort to get more of your cash before the end of 2013, local merchants in Downtown Concord weren’t offering many specials in their windows and stores this week.

Most stores are preferring to hold onto their inventories, in many cases, specialized products that are not seasonal or reliant on spur of the moment purchases from customers, yielding few “end-of-the-year” or post-Christmas bargains on Main Street.

One exception to the rule was the Concord Handmade "pop-up" shop located this year at the corner of North Main and Pleasant streets in the old Pitchfork Records location. 

Alison Murphy said the store is offering 20 percent off all items – handcrafted products from New Hampshire and New England – through the end of business on Dec. 29, when she closes the shop down for the year. The store has a number of items left on the shelves mostly due to artisans restocking the store before the Christmas rush.

“I wanted to keep the store looking full through the end,” she said. “I take (the discount) all out of my own. It’s less than the cost to ship back (the items).”

Murphy said the shop had another successful year and better than previous years, due mostly to the location, which was larger and in the more bustling end of downtown. More than 40 vendors participated this year, she said. 

A quick stroll down Main Street on Friday yielded some other specials: 30 percent off backpacks and camera gear bags at Concord Camera; Endicott Furniture is offering 50 percent off “every other piece” in the store; Simply Birkenstock has a 20 percent off storewide sale going on; Hair Biz Salon has a 25 percent discount on Aveda hair care products; and Caring Gifts is offering 50 percent off certain holiday items left in the store.

A callout on the Patch Twitter feed and Facebook site looking for local sales resulted in two more suggestions: Here We Grow Again on Broadway is kicking off its annual baby gear sale this weekend and the Outfitters Thrift Store on South Main Street is offering 50 percent off everything in the store through Dec. 31.

Have you seen any other year-end, post-holiday deals? Leave a note in the comment section and let readers know about them.